Wang Meng carries China's short-track hope for 2010

Young star Wang Meng gave little applaud to her domination in the women's 500-meter race at the Speed Skating World Cup in Changchun on Saturday, but dreaming of regaining the Chinese glory on the short track with teammates of the new generation.

The 21-year-old led a medal haul in the 500m event for China by timing 44.584 seconds with teammates taking the silver and bronze medals.

"I don't have much delight (for the title) though I haven't competed in the world-level competitions for half a year. I have a higher goal," Wang said.

She won the same event at the Turin Olympic Games earlier this year on her first trip to the Winter Olympics, leaving alone a silver medal in the 1,000m and a bronze in the 1,500m.

"I'm building up my body and concentrating on how to speed up my race. My goal is to have some good results in the mid long distance competitions," she added.

Wang is leading the Chinese team which is far away from setting up the arch-rivalry against South Korea, as its ancestors did in the past decade.

Yang Yang (A) won China's first short-track gold medal in the 2002 Salt Lake City Games in the women's 1,000m, while five-time world champion Yang Yang (S) had better results in the short-distance events.

Li Jiajun was the bell cow of the men's counter-part as the two-time world all-around winner had two silver and three bronze medals from the Olympics under his name.

With South Korea dominating the short track by winning six gold, three silver and two bronze medals in Turin, China is still on the stage to be better off in the second group with Canada, Italy, Bulgaria and the United States.

"Chinese short-track team will reignite the glory in four years," Yang Yang (A) said on Saturday when she was watching the race.

China need to strength up on the mid-distance and long-distance in the women's races and the men's counter-part is far beyond in touch of the Koreans.

"I don't think we don't have the talents. All we need is to have more trainings and competitions. We just need time to build a strong team for the 2010 Games," added Yang Yang (A), who now is a junior student in the Tsinghua University.

China won two gold, four silver and five bronze medals in the Turin Winter Olympic Games.

"I'm eager to bring more gold medals to China. I believe I have the potential to be better in the future," Wang vowed.

Source: Xinhua