Fielding a contingent of young and inexperienced gymnasts to the World Championships which opens here on Friday, China surely is putting an eye on the 2008 Olympic Games.

Debutants make up half of China's line-up, which clear shows the 2008 Olympic hosts' plan to foster youngsters for the daunting challenges ahead at the Beijing Games.

Chen Yibing, Zou kai and Dong Zhendong in men's team and Pang panpan, Zhou Zhouru, He Ning and Huang Lu in women's team all will feel the competition and learn their rivals in this level for the first time in the coming week.

"It's a chance to promote our young gymnasts, so we decided to put this into consideration when picking up our line-up," said China's team head Zhang Peiwen.

"It's quite necessary for them to become well known to the international judges for we are eyeing the 2008 Olympics more than the championships," added Zhang.

China's strength was much confined by injuries in veterans and established stars like Olympic Champions Li Xiaopeng, Teng Haibin and Huang Xu, so the gymnastic officials have to consider a follow-up troop to count on as the Beijing Games draw near.

China is still very competitive in several disciplines and will not settle with a finish as the 2005 Melbourne championships, where they bagged home two golds.

Xiao Qin and Cheng Fei, who won men's pommel horse and women's vault respectively last year, are still the favorites in their respective disciplines in Aarhus.

"When we decided our line-up, we were much concerned with the balance needed for the team gold. The team events are our top priority, " said Zhang.

China finished fifth in the men's team event at the 2004 Olympics after winning gold at the 2000 Olympics and 2003 world championships, while the women's team, the bronze medalists in Sydney 2000, slipped to seventh at Athens.

Editor: Donald