Australian head coach to the women's artistic gymnastics Peggy Liddick said on Thursday she hoped her team would claim its first women's gymnastic medal in the Beijing Olympic Games next month.

"We know that China and the United States will fight it out for the gold and silver medal. Australia hopes to be in contention for the bronze team medal," she told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

She said six female gymnasts were selected in early July to form a full team to compete in the Beijing Games. The girls were all national team members for three years and they went through a series of trials and camps. These six girls are Dasha Joura, Lauren Mitchell, Olivia Vivian, Ashleigh Brennan, Shona Morgan and Georgia Bonora.

The best result of Australian women's gym in the past Olympic Games was number seven in the team competition.

"This is the strongest team we have ever taken from Australia despite having no Olympians because of the amount of Commonwealth Games and international meet experience," she said.

"I also hope the Dasha Joura will be in good form in the all-round and floor exercise. Lauren Mitchell has a good beam routine, so maybe she can win a medal there," Liddick added.

She believed the team's previous experience competing in China and the fact there was little time difference between Beijing and Canberra, would act in its favor.

Talking about the preparation for the Beijing Games, Liddick said they train their team together at the Australian Institute of Sports in Canberra. The girls all have a personal coach that works with the national coach.

To gain competition experience, she has sent the gymnasts all over the world to gain competition experience. Then they also hold "mock" competitions in Canberra to prepare the girls for the stress they will encounter.

Liddick, being the head coach of the National women's gymnastic team since 1997, said she believed Chinese gymnastics was the best."They are so technically perfect, they are the standard that the rest of the world hopes to match. They are the number one example of strength and beauty."

She also noted that the Australian team has had several Chinese coaches here in Australia who had made contribution to improve the results of the team."I am also friendly with all the Chinese coaches in Beijing, so we have a good relationship. We always have friendly competitions with each other. We have competed in China many times and we like it there."

In the interview, Liddick expressed her eagerness to the Beijing Olympic Games and expected a very professionally run competition and there would be no problems from the organizers.

"We are very much looking forward to going to Beijing. We were there last December for the test event at the National Indoor Stadium, we loved it and want to go back," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2008)