¡¡¡¡GUIYANG, southwestern China, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese female hammer thrower Gu Yuan, who just took the title at the 18th Asian athletics championships in Sri Lanka on Friday with the new Asian record of 71.10 meters, is hopeful of clinching a medal or even the gold at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

¡¡¡¡Gu's coach Ou Xiyuan made the positive prediction during an interview with Xinhua at the Qingzhen subalpine training center inChina's southwestern Quizhou Province on Saturday.

¡¡¡¡Gu, only 20, has also become the first-ever Asian female hammerthrower to pass the 70-meter line.

¡¡¡¡"Gu still has the potential to do much more better in future competitions," said Ou, 50, who had trained two of the seven Chinese male hammer throwers boasting 70-plus meters results.

¡¡¡¡Picturing the situation in the hammer sport, Ou, who became thenational women's hammer team coach in 1998, said,"In Asia, our main rivals are two Japanese athletes but their best results standat 64-plus meters. In the whole world, Russia and some eastern European countries are traditional powerhouses. So far, Russian Loga Kuzenkova holds her best mark at 73-plus meters, while a Polish athlete's result has reached 71-plus meters."

¡¡¡¡"The champion of the hammer event at the 2001 world athletics championships got the result of 70.65 meters, and that of the Sydney Olympic Games was 71.16 meters," he added.

¡¡¡¡During the warming-up practices at Qingzhen for the Asian athletics championships, Gu had made her best result of 73 meters in training, he said.

¡¡¡¡If Gu can give her full play in real competitions, she is able to throw the hammer over 73.74 meters at the Athens Olympiad, which can guarantee a medal or even a gold, he noted.

¡¡¡¡"As Kuzenkova is 33 years old, much younger Gu will have more chances to succeed at the Olympiad," he said.

¡¡¡¡Now, the women's world record for the hammer sport is 76.07 meters set by Romanian Mihaela Melinte in August 1999. But on August 4, 2001, the Romanian Olympic Committee imposed a lifelong ban on Melinte for representing her homeland for Olympics because she failed doping tests. Meanwhile, Melinte was banned for two years by the International Athletics Association.

¡¡¡¡"It is very difficult for Chinese female athletes to throw a hammer over 76 meters, so is for players of other countries," Ou said.

¡¡¡¡Subalpine training is a good try for improving athletes' strength. But it was the first time for China's women hammer throwers to do such practice. Ou said," We don't have any experience in how long the best form of an athlete will come when she leaves for low-altitude areas."

¡¡¡¡Gu left the Qingzhen subalpine training center on August 2, andcreated the new Asian record on August 9. Enditem