Chinese Olympic official Duan Shi Jie said that his country's success at the Asian Games was a reflection of the new China.

Duan Shijie.[File Photo]

"Through sport we are showing a more civilized, a more democratic and an open China," he told a press conference.

"Our success is a reflection of national strength and a reflection of the reforms and the economic development and general improvement of the country." He said that before the 1980s Chinese athletes had not found the conditions favourable for performing well, but that had changed since then.

"The economic development and the changes in our country recently have ensured that the athletes have the best possible conditions to train and to compete. We can see this at these Games." Duan said that while some of the Chinese athletes had clearly obtained international standards and were on par with the world's best, others were not yet at that stage, even though they had achieved success at the Asian Games.

"In Beijing it will be different. There the best athletes will be competing and in some sports you have to do well in three races before even getting to the final our athletes will have to be at their best to compete at that level." He said that for most of the athletes in the team, the Asian Games were the first time they had competed at such a level. "We want to give them a chance to gain some international experience. We are pleased with many of their performances." Duan said that their medal tally did not exceed expectations. "In some sports we have done better than we expected and in some sports we did not do as well." He added that he did not think the performance at the Asian Games automatically reflected China's success at the Olympics in two years.

"As I have said, although we gained a lot of medals, some of the winners are not necessarily international standard. There is also the issue that some of the sports and even the regulations at the Olympics are different from those at the Asian Games.

"There have also been a few missed opportunities for our athletes to pick up gold medals and we will try not to do that at the Olympics.