China are unlikely to relinquish their 24-year grip on the top of the Asian Games medals table despite using Doha to give their younger athletes big-event experience ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
With 110m hurdles world-record holder Liu Xiang leading the way, no one will be surprised if China's 647-strong Doha delegation improve on the 150 gold medals they won at the Pusan Games in 2002. The huge investment in athletes for Beijing 2008 has produced a great depth of talent in Olympic sports and the relentless pursuit of gold is deeply ingrained in China's sports system.
"There is no excuse not to win a gold medal at the Asian Games," Tom Maher, head coach of the defending champions women's basketball team, told a news conference earlier this month. Around two-thirds of the delegation have no previous experience of top-level international competition and big names such as Athens Olympic champions Xing Huina (10,000m) and swimmer Luo Xuejuan (100 breaststroke) are absent.
There are, however, plenty of world-class performers and China's gymnasts, swimmers, divers and shooters will be looking to reproduce the dominance they achieved in 2002.
Triple world champions Cheng Fei and Yang Wei are included in a gymnastics squad that features all but one of the team that won eight gold medals at the world championships in Aarhus last month. "We are competing for the gold medals in all the 14 events. At the Pusan Games we won 12. We can't do less than that," said head coach Huang Yubin.
Men's world number two Ma Lin is in a table tennis squad that will be looking to increase its haul of three golds at Pusan, despite the absence of rested world number two Wang Liqin.
YAO MISSING: The Chinese men drew a blank in the badminton in Pusan and world champion Lin Dan along with his team mates Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai will be anxious to rectify that. A lot of the focus in China will be on how the men's basketball and soccer teams fare.
Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming was given permission to skip the Games so NBA trailblazer Wang Zhizhi leads a team including top teenage prospect Yi Jianlian, who will carry the flag at the opening ceremony on Friday.
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