Chinese swimmers are training hard at their pre-Olympic camps in the British cities of Leeds and Bath, with the goal of topping their 2008 performances.

The camps are helping them acclimate to British conditions before they head to the Olympic Village on July 23.

Hao Qiang, executive head of the Chinese pre-Olympic training camp in Leeds, said on Monday that the practice of establishing overseas training camps is a lesson "learned from other countries during the Beijing Olympics".

In the past, Chinese athletes would train in China, and travel straight to the Olympic villages, but differences between China and the Olympic host cities in terms of time zones, weather and food affected the athletes' performances.

The group of 23 training in Leeds includes Li Xuanxu, the 18-year-old bronze medalist in last year's Shanghai World Championships women's 1500 meter freestyle, and Lu Ying, the 23-year-old bronze medalist in the women's 100m butterfly at the same event.

Training sessions are held daily in the John Charles Centre for Sport and The Edge Sports Centre, at the University of Leeds, where the athletes also have access to gym facilities. Yuan Haoran, head of the Chinese swim team in Leeds, said the team booked two slots of three hours a day at the John Charles Centre.

Because Leeds is where the Chinese Olympic Committee chose to base the camp, the city will soon welcome another seven teams, who will represent China in table tennis, taekwondo, fencing, track and field, boxing, canoe slalom and women's hockey.

Some Chinese athletes decided not to base their training in Leeds.

Another group of swimmers, which includes Sun Yang, who smashed Australian Grant Hackett's 10-year-old men's 1,500 freestyle world record with a time of 14 min, 34.14 sec last year, will train at the University of Bath in southwest Britain. Yuan said the Bath swimming training camp was established because John Charles Centre was not large enough.

"From next week onward, we will be sharing the John Charles Centre pool with the Dutch swimmers, but we will be having separate training slots," Yuan said.

A third group, which includes Beijing Olympic gold medalist Liu Zige will head straight to the Olympic Village on July 23.

Yuan said Liu made the decision with her coach to ensure continuity of training in China.

In 2008, the Chinese swimming team finished with one gold, three silver and two bronze medals.

"We achieved good results at the 2009 Rome Worlds and last year's Shanghai Worlds, but we also recognize that the Olympics is a more competitive event," he said.

"We hope to achieve better results in men's swimming, because Sun Yang holds a world record. We are also expecting good results in the women's 200m butterfly, in which Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang will compete."

cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/12/2012 page24)