China in pursuit of Olympic cycling medals

China still expects to win its share of medals in women's cycling events at the Beijing Olympics, despite having one of its strongest events deleted from the games programme.

The Chinese were caught by surprise when the International Cycling Union announced earlier this year that it would drop one of the track events - women's 500-metre time trial - for the 2008 Games. Jiang Yonghua won a silver medal in the event in Athens - their first Olympic medal in cycling.

'It was a blow to us,' said Tian Junrong, vice chairman of the Chinese Cycling Association. 'But we are still confident that we can do well in the women's events, especially in short distance track events. Others such as mountain biking and even BMX racing are also our targets.'

With the deletion of 500m track time trial from the Beijing Games, their top priority will now be the women's sprint. 'Before the Athens Games, we have invested most of our resources in the time trial event, but in fact we have also been doing very well in sprints as we came third in the world championships and finished sixth at the Olympic Games. It will not be too difficult to shift our aim to this event,' added Tian.

In other cycling results, Hong Kong's medal hopeful Wong Kin-chung managed only a seventh place in the men's sprint as he lost in the quarter-finals yesterday. The youngster was totally outclassed by Wang Qiming from Henan, the eventual champion who beat him by more than a bicycle length.

'He is still young, and if he can learn from his experience here in Nanjing, he still has a very good future. There is no doubt he is one of the top junior riders but the National Games is of another class. He should have known it now,' said coach Shen Jinkang.