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BEIJING (Reuters)
- China's huge army of Olympic athletes are preparing behind
closed doors for this year's Tokyo Games, simulating the kind of
atmosphere they might experience in Japan, the Xinhua news
agency reported.
China finished third, behind the United States and Britain, in
the 2016 Rio Olympics medal table and are determined to do well
in the July 23 to Aug. 8 global sports showpiece.
"By simulating an actual competition environment and designing
actual competition procedures, the athletes will be better
prepared to compete under high pressure..." archery coach Pan
Minrui was quoted as saying.
The International Olympic Committee hopes spectators will be
able to attend the Games but doubts persists especially after
Tokyo woke up to its second state of emergency on Friday.
The Chinese gymnasts, however, are leaving no stones unturned in
their preparation, Miao Zhongyi, director of the Gymnastics
Management Centre of General Administration of Sport of China,
said.
"All the athletes will also need to live and compete in a strict
epidemic prevention and control environment during the Tokyo
Olympics, so if they can get used to such an environment, they
will get a psychological edge on the Olympic arena," said Miao.
China's rowing and canoeing teams are training at the Qiandao
Lake in east China's Zhejiang province.
"Winter training is the most important period for physical
training," said men's double sculls world champion Zhang Liang.
"We have the Olympic Games and the World Championships in
Shanghai this year. We have a tight schedule, which requires us
to make full use of every day of winter training to set a solid
start of the year."
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Toby
Davis)
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