Jamaica Olympic legend Donald Quarrie believes Chinese track and field athletes have what it takes to dominate the Asian Games.

The 1976 Montreal Games gold medallist, who finished a training camp in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province earlier this month, said China was able to beat off challenges from Japanese counterparts and keep the top spot in Asia during the Games, which closes on December 15.

"I think there are a lot of great potentials in China," said Quarrie. "I was impressed with the talent they have and effort they paid over years.

"For sure they are gold prospects at the Asian Games and I think they are able to dominate the track again ahead of their Asian rivals."

China has sent a 52-member track and field squad to participate in 37 events.

There are gold chances at the 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, pole vault, triple jump, shot put, discus, hammer, javelin, marathon and 20m walking race.

Chinese sprinters have yet to make any headway in the world alongside national treasure, Liu Xiang, who won the gold medal of the 110m hurdle at the Athens Games.

Women's 400m sprinters Huang Xiaoxiao is the second best performer in China as she finished the fifth place at the Helsinki World Championships last year in Finland.

At the World Youth Champinships in Beijing in August, Liang Jiahong was the only Chinese to make finals of sprinting events, becoming the first Chinese man ever to reach a 100 metres final at any World Championships or Olympic Games.

After two weeks staying with Chinese athletes of national team, the sprint hero suggested the young sprinters needs more experience at international stage.

"The talent is already here, they just need competitions," he said. "The more events you participate in, the more chances you have. So you have go out to experience all these stuffs and push yourself to do some more moves by way of international competitions."

Quarrie is regarded as one of the finest sprinters in the history of track and field and also Jamaica's most accomplished sprinters of all time. He won the Olympic gold in the 200 metres and the silver in the 100 metres at the Montreal Games in 1976 and led Jamaica's 4x100-metre relay team to a silver medal in the Los Angeles Olympics.

At the Commonwealth Games from 1970 to 1978, he collected a total of six gold medals at 100m, 200m and 4x100m.

Quarrie had his first training class in China last November after being selected by Jamaica's Sports Administration to deliver lectures and help Chinese sprinters.

This program follows a commitment made by Jamaica's Prime Minister PJ Patterson to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his official visit to China in June 2005.

Wayne McCook, Jamaica's ambassador of China, said the sprinter powerhouse aims to make it a long-term cooperation.

"We want to make the cooperation ever lasting," he said. "We are considering to bring some more Chinese athletes to Jamaica and train with our sprinters.

"We would like to see the overall level of Chinese athletics improves and we are glad to help China find the second Liu Xiang on the track."

(China Daily December 8, 2006)