They might have the potential, but are far from ready for the Beijing Olympic Games.

 

Over 300 swimmers, mostly under 19 years old, raced intensively for ten days at the Chinese City Games from last Saturday, but few of them kindled the pool with the Beijing Olympics approaching.

 

Li Xuanxu, 13, was the brightest star in Wuhan as the diminutive girl swept three golds with world-class performance.

 

She took the victory in the 200 meters individual medley in two minutes 13.98, the 14th fastest time this year. Her winning result of 4:37.56 in the 400m individual medley was even more impressive. It was placed sixth in this year's world rankings and could even have brought her the silver from this year's world championships.

 

Li went on to claim her third gold in the 800m freestyle with a personal best of 8:27.65, almost another top 10 result in 2007.

 

With these astonishing feats, Li was even described as the "fastest 13-year-old in history" by a foreign professional swimming website, and was believed "on a path to upsetting the medley apple cart in Beijing."

 

However, Li's coach Feng Zhen wasn't so optimistic.

 

"She was too young to keep stable," said Feng. "She failed to eat or sleep normally during Japan Open, her first international meet, and felt upset once she didn't make progress in competitions."

 

Feng's other disciples such as You Meihong and Yu Xin also showed extraordinary potentials in women's long-distance races, but lack of tests in international events.

 

Jiao Liuyang, who finished fourth at the world championships, won her specialty of women's 200m butterfly in 2:08.18, even though the time was far behind her personal best of 2:07.06, which is the world's fifth best time this season.

 

In the men's competitions, Wu Peng, the world championships silver medal winner in the men's 100m butterfly, could hardly convince the fans that he could become the first Chinese male swimmer to win an Olympic medal.

 

The 20-year-old's performance was worrisome, if not disappointing, at the City Games.

 

Losing to Shi Feng in his favorite 100m butterfly last month, Wu was defeated again. Although he unsurprisingly triumphed in the 200m, he will have to do more for his preparation for the Olympics to silence the critics.

 

Sun Yang, 16, who competed in his first world championships last March, breezily won titles of men's 400m and 1,500m freestyle but he had no reason to feel overjoyed because it would be a different story if China's top long-distance swimmer Zhang Lin had competed in the Games.

 

All-rounder Liu Weijia, 18, grabbed three golds and two bronzes out of six finals and improved his career best in both of the 200m and 400m individual medley.

 

But Liu, who had qualified for the Beijing Olympics, could still barely make any achievements 10 months later for failing to swim into top 20 in both individual medley events this year.

 

No wonder Chinese officials were worried about the Chinese youngsters' performances.

 

Xu Qi, director of the swimming department of the Chinese Swimming and Diving Management Center, said, "If the Chinese swimmers could not improve their techniques as soon as possible, they were unlikely to achieve good results until the 2016 Olympics. "

 

Xu also believed that the young swimmers needed to strengthen their mentality.

 

"Some of them trained well but failed to perform normally in the competitions," he added.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2007)