Against a hiatus of three years away from the 2008 Olympic Games, a successful National Games, which concluded in Nanjing on Sunday, has put the Beijing Games at sight.

With expertise in hosting sporting events, high-quality venues,advanced transportation system and the help of enthusiastic volunteers, Jiangsu has delivered another successful National Games since the quadrennial event was inaugurated in 1959.

Senior officials from the international sports associations have given thumbs-up to the organization of the Games.

"We have full confidence that China is very capable of staging big sports event. We are very confident that the 2008 Olympic Games will be a great success," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge after visiting the National Games.

"The organizing job here has been done excellently, and it promises me that Beijing Games would be as good or even better," said Francois P. Besson, sports director of the International JudoFederation after supervising the Games judo competitions.

The 10th Games, the largest ever in the history and the first that the host was decided by bidding, has attracted 9,986 athletesto participate in 32 sports, including all 28 summer Olympic ones during the Oct. 12-23 span.

"China's National Games is unique in many respects, like its size, history, and the level of performance. It is one of the topmulti-sports events in the world," said Australian Kevin Gosper, vice chairman of the IOC's Coordination Commission for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"What is beneficial for your athletes is not only the importance of competing here very well, but also you can compete in a multi-sports environment like the Olympics, which is different from all the championships."

Jiangsu has been successful both as hosts and participants.

Its athletes have garnered 56 gold medals to top the National Games for the first time, beating arch rival Guangdong to a distant second with 46.

Yet, the showcase of the Games, belonged to Shanghai native LiuXiang, the most striking sports figure in the country, who won China's first men's track-and-field Olympic gold last year in Athens in the men's 110m hurdles.

"Honestly, I didn't expect to run so fast in a domestic event. To win is the most important, though I knew I could make it easily," said the 22-year-old after clocking 13.10 seconds for the title on track.

In the pool of the National Games, most results of the women's individual events could be ranked within the top 10 of the year.

The accumulated timing from the top four in the women's 200m free was better than the best of 4x200m free relays since last year. Qi Hui's results in the women's 200m and 400m individual medleys and 200m backstroke could enable her to stand on the podiums of the three events at the Montreal worlds.

As for men swimmers Ouyang Kunpeng and Chen Zuo, both have renewed the Asian records three times in the 100m backstroke, 200mbackstroke and 100m free-style respectively. Ouyang touched home in remarkable timings in both 100m and 200m backstrokes, reaching the top three of this year's world rankings.

On the weightlifting platform, a batch of fresh faces have shown up while world records were bettered in a high frequency.

Qiu Le, 22-year-old, made a strong hit at the men's 62-kg category as he hoisted 145 kgs in the snatch and jerked up 177.5 kgs for a winning total of 322.5 kgs, just 2.5 kgs less than that Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong lifted in Athens.

Another novice Lu Yong, 19, took the limelight in the 85-kg class as he won the silver at 377.5 kgs, namely 2.5 kgs shorter ofthe 28-year-old champion Yuan Aijun, who finished fourth in Athensat 372.5 kgs.

Dark horse Yu Tingxiao of Sichuan claimed the title of the men's 56-kg division at a winning total of 282.5 kgs after he beat Olympic silver medalist Wu Meijin by 5 kgs.

At the shooting range, a bunch of young guns have thundered as qualified candidates for the shooting tournament of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The list of talents includes 17-year-old Yu Xiaokai, men's trapchampion, and another 17-year-old Cao Yifei, who triumphed in the men's 50m rifle prone, as well as Xiong Meili, 19, who crowned in the women's 50 rifle 3x40.

Yet, on the other portion of the picture, scandals of doping, match-fixing and refereeing controversies have tainted the Games, which is billed as the mini Olympics by the Chinese.

Women's over 78-kg class judo final had to be re-matched after Olympic champion Sun Fuming of Liaoning province deliberately lostto her provincial teammate Yan Sirui, who represented for the Chinese Army in the Games, following the hint of her coach Liu Yongfu.

The match-fixing incident resulted from a regulation especiallydesigned for the National Games, aiming to promote exchanges of athletes between provincial teams and the army team. According tothe regulation, any athlete of the army wins at the Games, the gold medal can also be counted for his/her native province.

Liu was given a warning by the organizing committee of the National Games.

"If the punishment handed to me could let all the others learn a lesson, I would welcome the decision and be willing to be the target of criticism," said Liu after Yan won the rematch and reclaimed the title.

And in the taekwondo competitions, the mat was overshadowed by a flurry of walkovers as 34 out 148 matches were not played while in cycling, a bronze medalist refused to step onto the podium in aprotest of the disputed result.

Yunnan's Yang Limei accused silver medalist Li Wei, riding for Ningxia, of deliberately blocking her to help former provincial teammate Li Yan of Shandong clinch the title in the women's individual point race.

Earlier in the Games, there were also refereeing scandals tarnishing the National Games. Three wrestling judges were bannedfor life on bribery charges, and Zhong Ling, the country's leadingrhythmic gymnast, accused the referees of fixing the competition results.

The 10th Games also smelt out drugs at the ending and star distance runner Sun Yingjie has been stripped of her silver medal in the women's 10,000 meters after she failed a doping test.

Sun, who claimed her third consecutive victory in the annual Beijing International Marathon one day before the women's 10,000m race, tested positive for the banned substance of androsterone afterwards.

Her result was thus nullified and she was prohibited from competing in the remaining events of the Games.

Rune Andersen, director of the Standard and Harmonization of the World Anti-Doping Agency, has given thumb-up to the National Games' doping control work.

"In regards to the National Games, the doping control is meeting any international standard," Andersen told reporters before winding up his four-day inspection tour of the Games.

China has been fighting severely against doping over the past decade and enacted its anti-doping law in March last year.

Editor: Donald