Special report: 2008 Olympic Games     

    By Sportswriter Bai Xu

    BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Wang Yuan, 46, a Chinese retired shooter coaching the Mexican Olympic shooting squad, said here Saturday that she managed to participate in the Olympic Games in another way.

    "I have four Mexican shooters competing in Beijing, and I hope they could advance to the final," Wang told Xinhua during the pre-Games training.

    Wang, who started shooting at the age of 15 and later became coach of the provincial team of China's populous Henan province, was dispatched to foreign countries to help them develop the sport in 2003 like some 30 others.

    At that time, she could speak only a little Spanish.

    "Sometimes I was so eager to express myself that I even used Chinese. It was strange that they could understand a bit of what I mean," the lady from northeastern China's Heilongjiang province recalled.

    "The first Chinese sentence they learnt is 'we have no training tomorrow," she smiled.

    Unlike China, Mexico doesn't have tradition of shooting, and the sport became popular only in the recent years. Only one shooter, Roberto Elias, went to the Athens Olympics.

    But Wang found some talents.

    "Take Jose Luis Sanchez as example," she said. "He is a college student majoring in computer science and I became his coach five years ago. His performance is stable with the personal best of 597 points in the men's 10-meter air rifle. At Good Luck Beijing World Cup, he scored 593 points in the qualification round, while Olympic champion Zhu Qinan collected 597 points."

    Sanchez is now champion at most of the national competitions. "Had he received training in China since early age, he might become another Zhu Qinan," said the coach.

    Looking into the Olympics, Wang said she had mixed feelings.

    "On the one hand, I hope Chinese shooters could win. On the other hand, I also want my team members to make a breakthrough," she said, adding that frankly speaking, the Mexican shooters were unlikely to beat Chinese currently.

    But she noted that the shooters were making rapid progress. "Maybe in the next Olympics or the one after next, they could earn a medal," she said.

    From Mexico, China could learn something, she said.

    "They have psychological consultants coming with the athletes. In China, shooters' psychological condition should also be underscored," she said. "After all, capacities of the top shooters are similar. Winner at such important events like Olympics is the one who could give full play to his or her real capacity."