Showing posts with label Lu Shanzhen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lu Shanzhen. Show all posts

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Move Media Coverage on Chinese Gymnastics in Rotterdam



-translated by longdoydoy

Chinese teams returned to Beijing

(news studio)
Broadcaster: The Holland Worlds ended yesterday afternoon and the Chinese teams arrived in Beijing. As the Asian Games approaches (I think she said), we worry for our WAG team and even our MAG team was intimidated by the Japanese team.

(Beijing airport)
Narrator: The Chinese teams were home, arriving at 12:40pm. Head coach, Huang Yibing expressed that despite some success was achieved, he also saw the insufficiencies of the teams.

Coach Huang: We cannot come back with 4 gold medals and think that everything will be okay, we should recognize the threat that we are facing at present as the gap between the opponents and our teams is closing.

Narrator: Although they topped the medal count with 4 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze, they could not help but feel somewhat embarrassed with the poorest results from the WAG team of the past half year. This time as they returned to home, while there was laughter from the male athletes, some sadness could be felt from the girls.

(Qiushuang interviewed)
Reporter: Were you nervous before the match?
Qiushuang: I was.
Reporter: Do you think it was the environment or what?
Qiushuang: I just get nervous at competitions. (she was in no mood to talk at all)
(reporter patting her back)

Reporter: Jia yo. Everyone gets like that in the beginning. (Qiushuang nods, kind of)

(shows Kexin steps down from bus)
Narrator: Kexin, who lost the chance for the UB gold due to a big error, had puffy eyes as she pushed her luggage along.

(Coach Lu interviewed)
Narrator: At his WAG team’s loss, Coach Lu expressed that it was due to the lack of experience in a major competition.
Coach Lu: This time at our strong event, the UB, we did really well at the prelims; but we had problems at the team finals. Essentially, this was a wake-up call for us; especially for Kexin‘s mistake, she had not made an error in all of her finals before.

Narrator: The WAG team has lost it’s main pillar, Cheng Fei; it is very challenging for Jiang Yuyuan to shoulder the heavy responsibilities alone and as team leader, she deeply feels the weight on her.

(Yuyuan interviewed)
Yuyuan: One, it is about the experience in competitions, and the other it is having the confidence; the juniors still lack confidence. This was their first big meet, well, not for Sui Sui (Sui Lu), but she needs to accumulate her experience to have better performances.

Narrator: At this WTC, the strong teams of Russia and USA were also at the stage of having juniors taking over, gradually; there were many new faces in these teams. In terms of D-value, the 3 teams (Russia, USA, China) were neck and neck, but the Chinese juniors had shown to be more green competing on the spot; whereas the Russians and Americans performed like seasoned athletes, this has a lot to do with their training environments back home. (shows Mustafina’s final tumble pass on FX; teammates cheer and high five)

(senior gymnastic reporter, Bao, interviewed)
Bao: In the US, Russia and the European countries, gymnastic meets are held in a very grand way, their young gymnasts participate in these grand national competitions and club meets and they are immersed in the atmosphere of international meets since little. These kids are extremely charged up on the international stage; especially at team finals, if they had a good start they just get better and better, so we often see exceptional performances at the last of the events from them.

Narrator: Simply said, the foreign athletes treat competitions like they are at training whereas all the Chinese athletes know is to train and train; even though the techniques are like second nature to them but their mentalities are easily affected in an international meet. At present, there are only 3 options to compensate the absence of Cheng Fei: one, to make a selection out of the current team members; two, to wait for the return of Cheng Fei; three, to screen the crop for a core athlete. But these are not permanent solutions. Comparing to the gymnastic training molds of the Russians and the Americans, the Chinese are at a disadvantage in terms of the availability of core talents.

Narrator: While the women athletes had problems, the men’s team had their share of pressures as well. At this WTC, the fine performances of the Japanese juniors had made Chen Yibing to expect a hard battle at the upcoming Asian Games.

(Yibing interviewed)
Yibing: Except for our advantage at Rings, it seemed that we could not pull ahead in other events and we will have to work on these challenges.
(head coach, Huang interviewed)


Coach Huang: At the last men’s team finals we were ahead of the Japanese by over 7 points, but this time it was just by 1.22. The champion of this next team finals will be determined purely by the success ratio at competitions.

Narrator: Like the WAG team, the men are in need of a core team member like Yang Wei. While Chen Yibing and Teng Haibing are the current seniors, they are still not exactly at the same level as the past seniors like Yang Wei and Li Xiao Peng.

(Yibing interviewed)
Yibing: We are definitely not as gifted. Even now, as a core athlete myself, I am no comparison to Wei Ge (big brother Wei).

Narrator: Accordingly, the Chinese teams will begin to prepare for the Asian Games immediately after returning home. They will have hardly any time to rest as the next challenge presses near. Reporter, Huang Haiming, signing off.

(back to studio)
Broadcaster: Let’s hope that our teams benefit from this past experience and achieve great results at the Asian Games.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Lu on the performance of the Chinese WAG team in Rotterdam


During the last week’s World Championship in Rotterdam, Chinese WAG only won two silvers on AA & BB and 1 bronze on TF, which was the first no gold medal since 2002 in Debrecen. It is notable, however, Jiang, Yuyuan managed to capture the silver medal on AA, the best AA record by Chinese gymnasts by far.

(See http://www.olympic.cn/news/olympic/2010-10-26/2087030.html)


On Chinese WAG team’s overall performance in Rotterdam,

As the reigning Olympic champion team, Chinese WAG team is still one of the strongest team in the world, and our best apparatus remain the highest technical standard.


On the reasons for gold medal drought:

First of all, the expectation to win team gold was too high. We underestimated the challenges we face in the TF -- we didn’t expect our rivals to rise so soon (referring to Russian’s revival). the “blessings” from the judges (referring to downgrade of Deng’s BB in TF etc.) were out of our expectation. In addition, Cheng Fei’s absense took a toll on our competitiveness in Vault and Floor, and the morale of the whole team.


On the lessons learned from this World Championship

There are many lessons learned during this competition, which we hope would be beneficial to our preparation for the London 2012. To name one, our team didn’t perform well on our strongest apparatus – uneven bars. Kexin, who had never lost a single international title before, fell off the bar during EF in Rotterdam despite a wonderful routine during prelim. Her loss rings a bell for our team and serves a lesson for our athletes.


Lu Shanzhen has been the head coach of the Chinese WAG team since 1993. He was the personal coach to several Olympic and world champions such as Cheng Fei, Liu Xuan, Bi Wenjing etc. He led the Chinese WAG to its first Worlds Team Gold in 2006 and Olympic Gold in 2008.