The Chinese Olympic delegation has never set an objective towards how many medals they should win at the Beijing Olympic Games, said Cui Dalin, deputy chef de mission on a press conference on Thursday.

"We have never set a medal target," said Cui. "But in all of the events, our athletes prepared well. They trained very hard and made progress."

"At the same time, we have noticed that some world records have already been broken. So I am sure that the competition at different venues will be very tough and fierce," added the deputy chef de mission.

"As long as our athletes manage to perform their best, even if they lose, I think our people can understand," Cui said.

China's first gold in Beijing is expected to be produced in women's 10m air rifle or women's 48kg weightlifting, but Cui did not want to talk about it. "No talk about the first gold," he said.

Cui said that the 1,099-member Chinese Olympic delegation includes 639 athletes. "Since we are the hosts, we have qualified directly for most of the events, so the Beijing Games will witness the largest-ever Chinese Olympic delegation."

"All the Chinese people are looking forward to the good performances of the Chinese athletes. But the very good performance not only means the good results, it also means as the host, we should do more in enhancing cultural exchanges among people from all over the world," Cui said.

"The main objective of the Chinese Olympic delegation is to promote the friendly ties among all the countries and regions, and to promote the Olympic spirit and improve the competition level," Cui said.

China has always been weak in the swimming, track and field, sailing, rowing and canoeing/kayak. The number of the total gold medals produced by these sports is 119. So China has set up a program called Project 119, which means to develop the three big sports.

"Although we have tried hard to develop, there are still a lot of room for us to improve," Cui said. "At the Beijing Olympic Games, it's hard for us to win any medal in these sporting events."

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)