The scorching sun didn't seem to wither the enthusiam of Chinese shooters and archers, who were about to leave for the Olympic Village on Sunday afternoon.

Standing in the red-and-yellow suit on the square of western Beijing's shooting compound, the 58 members from China's shooting and archery squads vowed to earn more medals at the 29th Olympics on their own soil.

"We bear the hope of all Chinese shooters and archers," said Gao Zhidan, director of the Shooting and Archery Administrative Center.

"We will try to make the national anthem resound on the Olympic arena," he said.

Sun Shengwei, shotgun coach of the Chinese shooting team, said he was "excited before starting for the Olympic Village".

"We have prepared four years for this event. Now we are here, we will give full play to our capacities," he said.

China nipped its historic first Olympic gold in shooting when Xu Haifeng crowned at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

A super power in shooting sport, the 2008 Games host country has a strong shooting team that includes Olympic champions Du Li, Zhu Qinan and Jia Zhanbo. Besides, a handful of other world medalists are also expected to make a breakthrough.

In comparison, Chinese archers were more repressed, as archers seemed to be "destined" as runners-up. Archers won silver medals at Los Angeles, Barcelona, Atlanta and Athens Olympics, but never enjoyed the tint of gold to date.

Reigning position of South Korea seemed hard to shake. "To South Korea, archery is like table tennis to China," said Chinese archery management chief Zhou Yuan.

However, new rules were about to be implemented, which reduced the total number of shots from 18 to 12. Host advantage is also likely to help Chinese archers break the spell.

The athletes started for the Olympic Village at 3:15 p.m to fulfill their pledges.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)