DOHA, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Veteran technical official Gao Jian from China on Thursday regarded the standard of artistic gymnastics at the Doha Asian Games as the best he has ever seen.

    "We can see so many world champions competing here, such as Chinese Yang Wei and Japanese Hiroyuki Tomita," said Gao after the last day of apparatus finals at the Games.

    "The degree of the field is higher than ever before."

    Gao, the president of technical affairs for men's gymnastics in Asia and director of the Chinese gymnastics administration center, has been to seven Asian Games. He sang highly of China's 11 gold medals here, but warned that other teams were following closely.

    "The Chinese team got a very good opportunity to practise here, as I think the gymnastics level in Asia is improving," said Gao.

    As China refine their routines ahead of hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, Gao said they would need to monitor rivals Japan and DPR Korea, particularly on the horizontal bar.

    "Though Zou Kai performed well with higher difficulty, the quality and degree of his movement is not as fluent and fast as Japan's Mizutori."

    Gao believes China's dominance over Japan in the Games is a great achievement because the Japanese did not send their strongest team to the Asian Games in Busan 2002.

    But he is wary of Japan's threat to China's gold medal ambitions, highlighting the floor as an area for improvement in the Chinese men's team.

    "After we got a very good result from the world championships in Denmark, I told the Chinese team that we should take the Japanese team as a long-time rival," said Gao.

    "They are always preparing to attack."

    Gao said the Games were an ideal opportunity for young Chinese gymnasts to be tested ahead of major competition such as the 2007 world championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

    He believes that Zou and women's all-around gold medallist He Ning will become super stars in the future.