Special report: 2008 Olympic Games      

    BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Canadian shuttlers who arrived in Beijing two days ago heaped compliments on the environment and the facilities in Beijing here on Monday.

    "Very clean, very green. Trees and flowers are everywhere," said Mike Beres, mixed doubles player from Canada who is ranked 64th with his partner Valerie Loker.

    Loker echoed his sentiment by saying that the Olympic village is fantastic, and the training venue located at Beijing Chaoyang Gymnasium is very good.

    "So far so good," she concluded her two-day stay in the capital city, stressing that volunteers are very helpful.

    The Canadian pair is pitted against Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam from Thailand, currently world No. 8, whom they had never met before.

    "It's gonna be very tough, but we will try our best," said Loker.

    On the eventual winner of the mixed doubles gold, Loker said it is too hard to make some prediction as the game is very open, while her partner Beres would like to place his bet on Indonesian pair Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir, No.1 seeds for mixed doubles at the Olympic tournament to be held in Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium from Aug. 9 to 17.