Dodging buses and lost taxi drivers is far more exciting than softball

Recovery time from the emotionally draining, adrenalin-inducing, knockout opening ceremony was short for China's number-crunching sports ministers - those secretive architects of the (revised) Project 119.

With a medal calibration machine as secret and complex as the second world war-encoded Enigma device, the poker-faced, hi-tech scientific soothsayers had their eyes and fingers firmly on the abacus all day, rejigging the figures as China's first medals dropped, or otherwise, into the large and expectant bag.

Even before they could revive themselves from the night before with mid-morning slurps from their teacups, shooting ace Du Li and fencer Tan Xue crashed out of medal contention.

Pundits have long been wagging their heads sagely at the pressure piled on China's medal miners, claiming collective stage fright would strike the glory-hunting 639.

As if the weight of the nation on their shoulders, coupled with the burdensome humidity was not enough, perhaps the wrong type of inspiration on the eve of competition - however the good the intention - was the sight of a composed Li Ning strolling gloriously with animated strides while suspended halfway between Earth and Mars.

China's sports stars have plenty of cash, coaches, managers and dogma behind them to challenge the dominant Americans. But they do not have the billions to employ genius Zhang Yimou to assist them in magically beating the defending Olympic champions on home soil, however attractive the fairytale.