BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus has set her sights on a third Olympic gold medal in Beijing, but the single sculler admitted here Saturday that she would be pushed hard by strong rivals.

    Karsten, who won the single event in Atlanta and Sydney and three world titles since 2005, said she was not so confident if her bid for a third Olympic gold would be successful, as her main rivals also trained very hard.

    The 36-year-old won Heat Three comfortably in 7 minutes 40.03 seconds, but finished the 2,000m course nearly two seconds behind Zhang Xiuyun of China. Zhang clocked a time of 7:38.16 in heat one, the fastest among all 26 competitors in six heats.

    The strong favorite, who arrived in Beijing on July 27, said the hot weather wasn't a big problem for her. "I've quite gotten used to the weather here during the pre-Games training," she said.

    Asked if she had plans for the 2012 Games, the silver medalist in Athens said: "That is quite long way from here, but I might appear there."

    Asked if she'd like to see her little girl to undertake rowing, Karsten said: "She isn't very much interested in rowing. Instead she loves volleyball."