China looking to improve, but not yet back to old glory days

By Peter Auf der Heyde Jul 21, 2011, 9:13 GMT

Shanghai, China - In the 1990s China was the dominant force in women's swimming, taking 12 out of 16 gold medals at the 1994 world championships in Rome.

After several of their top swimmers were found to have used performance-enhancing substances their dominance died as rapidly as it had risen and it is only recently that they have come back into the fore.

Although they failed to win any gold medals in Montreal (2005) and Melbourne (2007), they managed four first places in Rome in 2009 and won ten medals overall in the swimming competition.

At their home world championships in Shanghai Chinese swimmers are keen to move up the medals table, though head coach Yao Zhengjie has said that his team should take nothing for granted in the swimming competition at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, which starts on Sunday.

Backstroke swimmer Zhao Jing won two gold medals in Rome and the 20-year-old is expected to do well over the sprint distance this time around, having also won two gold medals in the short-course world championships in December in Dubai.

Liu Zige, who was the first Chinese swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal when she came first in the 200 metres butterfly in Beijing in 2008 fronts a strong women's team that is in the hunt for several gold medals.

Ironically Liu herself will be hard-pressed by 19-year-old Jiao Liuyang, who took the silver medal behind her compatriot at the Olympics.

Jiao won the bronze in the 100m butterfly in Rome and is hoping to do even better this time around. She also added gold in the 4 x 100m medley relay, but Yao has issued a warning that it will not be easy this time around to repeat that success.

'Although we won the women's 4x200m freestyle relay and 4x100m medley relay at the last world championships in Rome 2009, we cannot guarantee a gold in Shanghai, as Australia and Canada both have claimed better results this year,' the coach said ahead of Sunday's start of the competition.

The general secretary of the Chinese swimming federation Li Hua is even more cautious. 'Despite some progress in swimming in the past two years, China is still far behind some leading European countries and the US.'

Like most other countries participating in Shanghai, it will give swimmers and teams a good indication where they stand ahead of next year's Olympics in London.

'The Shanghai Worlds is the biggest competition before the 2012 London Games, so it is a good chance to get the swimmers ready,' said coach Yao, while Li added that they were challenging for several medals in the women's events.

'We will strive for good performances in such events as the women's butterfly and backstroke, as well as the women's relays,' he said.