"We come to China with the ambition for Olympic medals, but we also want to enjoy sharing the party with new friends from various countries and regions," Panama's fencing coach Julio C. Gonzalez Tirador said in Tianjin on Friday.

Tirador made the remarks during a pre-Olympics training course designed by the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to warm up fencers for the Games.

Starting Friday's training with an eight-player indoor football match, the fencers appeared with little anxiety for the pending Olympic Games, and instead displayed much pleasure for sharing time with new friends.

"It's an important opportunity for me to play with fencers from so many countries and regions, and the training program is a very precious opportunity ahead of the Olympic Games," said Panamanian women epeeist Yesira Jimenez Luna, who is among 20 or so fencers from Cuba, Senegal, Brazil, Thailand, Ireland, Peru, Panama, Burkina Faso and Hong Kong.

The fencers will finish their FIE training course on August 3 and then leave for Beijing, the Olympic host city which is only half an hour's travel from Tianjin by high-speed train.

While they trained hard on the fencing pistes, they also played hard on the ground. Watching the Brazilians and Senegalese playing football during intervals of her training, Peruvian girl Maria Luisa Doig Calderon laughed a lot. A 16-year-old high school student, she may be one of the youngest fencers to compete at the Olympic Games.

While the Olympic Games has the motto of Faster, Higher and Stronger, it also cherishes such values as participation, loving and sharing.

Algerian women fencer Bentaleb Hadia, who had no training for months before coming to China, said her arms ached after the intensive training here in Tianjin.

"It's good for me to get warmed up for the Olympic Games. I haven't trained for several months. Here I have training and I make friends," she said. Hadia might have very slim chances for winning medals this time, but she participates, shares and enjoys.

The Tianjin fencing team offered the best they had for the foreign fencers. Coach Wang Fuchi said their own players were moved to a smaller room so that the foreign friends can practise in this larger hall equipped with six new air conditioners bought just for the FIE course.

"We send the best of our fencers to practise with them and help them warm up for the Olympic competitions," Wang said.

The coach said the FIE had greatly helped promote fencing in China, and he wanted to contribute his part for the promotion of this sport in other parts of the world. The Beijing Olympic Games is a good opportunity, he said. The more people get involved, the more popular the sport will become.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2008)