Head of the Dutch Olympic mission Charles van Commenee has expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the Dutch team in Beijing, the AD newspaper reported on Monday.

The Netherlands ended in 12th place on the medals table, with seven golds, five silvers and four bronzes. The final placing was six places higher than at the Athens Olympics even though fewer medals were won.

"This shows our ambition to reach the top 10 is realistic," van Commenee was quoted by AD as saying. "You need to have high ambitions. You only jump higher if you raise the bar."

He said Dutch coaches and athletes would now analyse their performance and look at what needs to be done to reach the top 10.

He said it was gratifying to see what a broad range of events the Dutch had won medals in -- nine in total, but there were also disappointed performances from a number of swimmers and cyclists, who he said underperformed due to "bad planning."

Meanwhile, he warned that the Netherlands would find it increasingly difficult to win in future Olympic Games.

Success is not only a question of putting more money into the team, and talent also has to be nourished, he added.

The Dutch athletes are scheduled to return home Monday afternoon and will be taken straight to the Olympic stadium in Amsterdam, where thousands of supporters are expected to greet them.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2008)