China eyes dominance in athletics at Asian Games
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Chinese Athletics Administrative Center chief Feng Shuyong has vowed the national team will continue its dominance at the Asian Games by topping the medal tally and the overall rankings in November.
"The goal is to be No 1. That's for sure," Feng said in Shandong on Sunday at the close of the National Athletics Championships, which also served as the national qualifiers for the upcoming Asian Games in Guangzhou.
China's athletics team has topped the medal tally at the continental event since the 1986 Seoul Games. It finished 14 gold medals ahead of the second-place nation at the 2006 Doha Games, just as it did four years earlier in Busan.
Feng also said China is assembling a 70-member team from the results of the national championships.
"The top two finishers in every event here are eligible for the Asian Games. But that does not mean they have locked up tickets to Guangzhou because we may not send athletes to some events that we are not good at," said Feng, who is also the head coach of the national squad.
Former world champion Liu Xiang, who is still nursing a foot injury, did not take part in Shandong. However, he is still expected to compete in Guangzhou.
Another star name expected to represent China at the Asian Games is Bai Xue, the reigning marathon world champion who won a gold medal at the 2009 Berlin World Championships.
"Like what bothered us in previous Olympic Games, we don't have many world-class athletes," Feng said, "As a result, we have to continue pinning our hopes on key players."
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