"Studying abroad" has been a trend among Chinese students for
years but it only became popular with Chinese speed skating team in
recent years and it worked well.
Chinese speed skating team achieved their goal at the 6th Asian
Winter Games ahead of schedule after clinching another two gold
medals to make it four in total on Wednesday. China only bagged one
in last Games in Aomori, Japan in 2003.
"I am so happy that we have achieved our goal ahead of time,"
said speed skating official Xiao Hua of the State General
Administration of Sports.
"The success owes greatly to our 'studying abroad' policy in
recent years. It showed that our athletes indeed learned a lot from
their foreign coach," said Xiao.
Chinese speed skating team established cooperative relation with
a training base in Calgary, Canada where the 2010 winter Olympic
Games will be held.
"The team has been sending athletes over there to train. Once
there were as many as six of them training there," said Xiao.
"As long as we can afford it, we will keep doing it because as
far as I am concerned, athletes can have better training conditions
and expose to better methods," she said.
"Compared to those who are advanced in skating events, China is
lagging behind in many ways now, so we should learn to catch up,"
she added.
Wang Beixing and Xing Aihua returned from Canada two weeks ago
for the Games and their performance gave the speed skating team a
big boost of confidence.
Wang, 21, eased to a new Asian record en route to the women's
500m victory before taking a silver in the 100m behind her study
pal Xing.
Asian championships all-around winner Wang Fei pulled off the
3,000m and 1,500m titles.
"I like my coach and his way of training very much," said the
21-year-old Wang referring to her Canadian coach Kevin Crockett.
"His training methods suit me well and help me improve a lot for
the past three years."
Crockett, Nagano Olympic Games 500m bronze medalist, was happy
to see some achievement made working with his Chinese students.
"I can see a big future in her. The sky is unlimited," said
Crockett about Wang.
Crockett said he was on very good terms with the Chinese, both
the athletes and the officials so he was rather optimistic about
their future cooperation.
"My skaters trust me one hundred percent. They never question
me. I think it is good because my training is very difficult and
hard, so I have to have their entire confidence in me," he
said.
"We have good relation with the Chinese speed skating team. I
feel that we will have more Chinese athletes in Canada in the
future," he said.
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(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2007)