Head coach of the Chinese Hong Kong rowing team told Xinhua on Saturday that they will aim for better result in the Beijing Olympic Games.

In the 2004 Athens Games, Chinese Hong Kong finished its best with an 18th place in the men's single sculls by Law Hiu Fung, who is now 24 years old.

Hong Kong has three boats for the Beijing Games, a record for them as in previous Games they had at most two boats.

"The best results in Athens was 18th in the men's singles. We hope to improve on that result. And also for our crews, we want to improve the overall ranking in Asia. And I think these are realistic targets for us, a very small place like Hong Kong at the stage of development," said head coach Christopher John Perry.

"Both singles events ranked No. 4 in Asia after the Olympic qualification. And the men's lightweight doubles is No. 3. For the doubles we have a tough task because we must go ahead of Japan or China. Both the singles we have more countries that we can target."

When talking about his rowers' form, Perry said: "I think their form is very good. The last two weeks we have been back in Hong Kong, but before that we were five weeks in Europe, racing in Europe and some competitions.

"So we have very good preparations during the summer time and we are certainly ready now to come here. We took part in the last World Cup in Poznan, Poland and some of the rowers took part into the under 23 World Championships in Germany."

The team came to Beijing Friday night and they had to prepare the boats Saturday with some riggings.

"And now we paddle a little bit as we finish the preparation of the boat and tomorrow we can do a little bit more. We have to get used to the climate and conditions here," Perry added.

"All of the rowers here are full-time rowers, they have committed to full time training just the same as the Chinese team or whatever. "

Perry said it's hot here but they felt OK with the wind.

This has been the 23rd year for Perry to steer the Hong Kong rowing team since he went to Hong Kong in March 1986.

"We have improved over the years. Before I went to Hong Kong, we had never won any medals even in Asia but now we are very competitive within the Asian region. Of course in the world compared with the top European countries we have still a long way to go."

The team has had several good results. Their most medals came from the Asian Games, and one gold medal in the East Asian Games. In 1995, they even cruised into the final of the World Championships.

Perry has witnessed the growth of Hong Kong's rowing.

"The popularity of rowing has grown a lot especially in universities. When I first went to Hong Kong, we had only two universities (who row), but the government has converted some polytechniques into universities. Now we have eight universities who row. And every year into university race it's become more and more popular, using more and more resources to build this up.

"So I think the number of rowers has increased from only about 200 to nearly 1,000. But of course the majority of them are recreational rowers or rowers who only row once or twice per week. So it's more difficult to get to the kind of professional level of rowing," said Perry.

(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2008)