If there was an Oscar award in China's sports, the Best Supporting Actor should be presented to the national men's taekwondo team.

But to a team, composed of 32 promising youth aged between 19 to 26, it is far from enough.

Making extra efforts to catch up, they are determined to shake off the image of merely being supporting actors to their fellow star women's athletes.

The women's team have already established themselves internationally by winning three gold medals in the past two Olympics and a handful of world championship titles. Meanwhile, all the men's athletes got were the high praises from officials and people for their contribution in accompanying women athletes in training.

Now China has to pay for the sports' unbalanced development as the men's athletes have further lagged behind powerhouses like South Korea and Iran, and a gold medal at a world championship or an Olympic Games is still out of reach.

"If men's events have no breakthroughs, China cannot be seen as the taekwondo powerhouse," said Lu Fan, head coach of the men's team.

Liu Xiaobo's men's 80kg gold medal in the East Asia Games last year was the first and only one won by a man in major international events.

Previous best results were a bronze medal won by Cui Yuhong in the Universiade Games last year and a silver from Li Lai at the 2004 Youth Taekwondo Championships.

"We spent most of our time acting as a training partner for the women's team in the past years," Lu said. "So the athletes do not know the sport quite well. Compared to world's best teams, our men's athletes just started to develop."

But the 2008 Beijing Olympics gives the team the best chance to catch up.

In a bid to win as many medals as possible in 2008, officials of the sport's governing body have been aware of the situation and the men's team began its independent training camp from late last year.

"Now we are given more support, and we can assemble the best athletes from around the nation here to train together," Lu said.

"More importantly, we were offered a training base here and do not have worries about being interrupted."

The months-long training camp has seen rapid improvement in the team.

"In the past months, we tried a lot to change the athletes' understanding of the sports in order to match the world's advanced training methods," Lu said.

"And we send them abroad as an exchange with the world's top athletes and coaches. And in the just concluded Iran Open, our athletes put on some impressive performances."

Learn from Iran

As one of the world's top taekwondo tournaments, Iran Open, held from March 1 to 7, attracted a number of world and Olympic champions.

It was the first time for China in the past 10 years to take part in the event.

"With less than three years to go before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, we have to train and compete more if men's athletes aim to make a breakthrough on home soil."

To delight coach Lu, the men's team grabbed two bronze medals in Iran, and Wang Hao just lost his 72kg semi-final against Athens Olympic champion Hadi Saei Bonettkohal of Iran by one point.

"The results help boost the confidence and show potential from our athletes," Lu said. "But we should concentrate more on the gap and learn from Iran and South Korea."

Lu said they trained with the Iranian team for three days after the competitions and was amazed by their unique methods.

"They have special training methods targeted at speed, stamina, flexibility and harmony. They use more technique-involved ways to improve the physical abilities."

Apart from the training, what makes Lu envious about Iran is also their professional league.

"Iran has had the professional league for 10 years, and more than 40 professional clubs have competitions every week."

So the moment the team returned to China from Iran, Lu guided its members to try some new ways during its second training camp in Beijing. They are now preparing for the Asian Championships next month and Asian Games in December.

"The men's target is to win medals," Lu said. "And we will also try our best to win a gold medal."

Taekwondo competitions in the Asian Games have eight divisions for men and women. China have yet to decide which divisions to compete in.

"We will pick up the line-up in October," Lu said.

(China Daily March 24, 2006)