Canada is expecting to be in the top 16 on the medal tally, said Sylvie Bernier, chef de mission of the Canadian delegation, after their flag-raising ceremony in the Olympic Village on Wednesday.

"We won't count how many medals we get, we are expecting to be top sixteen overall in the medal-count with every delegation," said Bernier.

"Adam van Koeverden, our flag-bearer in the opening ceremony, is our great athlete in Kayak," said Bernier. "The athletes all trained very hard last year and I hope they will have their best performances in Beijing."

"We also have good cyclists, especially in cross country and mountain biking. We won a medal in Athens and we are expecting them to do well again."

The Canadian delegation has 620 members, including 332 athletes. Canada made its Olympic debut in 1900 in Paris, and has sent athletes to every Olympics since then except the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games.

Canada's best Olympic performance come from athletics and water sports such as rowing, swimming and canoe/kayak.

Its last athletics gold medal was in 1996 when Donovan Bailey took the men's 100m sprint in a then world record time of 9.84 seconds. Bailey later led the Canadian team to gold in the men's 4x100m relay.

Canada hosted the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, but failed to win a gold medal. This is the only time that the host nation of a summer Games failed to win a single gold medal.

Mark Rowswell, who is better known by the Chinese as "Da Shan", also appeared in the ceremony.

"We will be happy if we get dozens of medals, including two or three golds," said Rowswell. "I will do my best to help the Canada delegation, for example, in cultural communication."

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)