Despite his precarious position, Team China's canoe-kayak head coach Josef Capousek insists he is "still in Beijing".

He was responding to a report in yesterday's local journal Titan Sports saying he had been dropped from Team China's line-up for the Olympics.

"I can just say it is very difficult to explain everything. It's obviously incorrect for the federation to do this," Capousek said.

Xinhua later quoted Wei Di, China's water sports chief, as saying the national team would terminate the 62-year-old German coach's contract on June 30th.

Sun Erjie, head of PLA (People's Liberation Army) canoeing team, will replace Capousek and Xu Jusheng will work as deputy head coach. The other coaching staff members remain unchanged.

Capousek helped German athletes win 17 Olympic gold medals and trained legendary canoeist Birgit Fischer.

Chinese media identified the poor performance of the women's kayak team for the move, and differences between Capousek and the Chinese federation.

Capousek had guaranteed at least one gold medal for the home team in the women's kayak, but in a series of international competitions they showed little likelihood of doing so.

China was sixth place in the women's K1 500m, eighth place in the women's K4 500m and ninth place in the women's K2 500m at the World Cup in Szeged, Hungary, earlier this month.

China's real gold medal prospects are Yang Wenjun and Meng Guanliang. The pair snatched a surprise gold medal in Athens in the men's C2 500m and, after a three-year separation, won three gold medals at the tournament in Szeged. Returning Canadian coach Marek Ploch, however, took the credit for this success.

Capousek is among a wave of departing foreign coaches, including women's soccer head coach Elisabeth Loisel from France, and men's soccer team manager Vladimir Petrovic, who was forced to resign after players' protests and public criticism.

Guus Hiddink, who recently turned Russia into a new power in European football, refused to coach China's soccer team, for the third time in six years.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2008)