With just three weeks left for the Beijing Olympics, China has put Serbian coach Ratomir Dujkovic on the back seat in the Chinese Olympic football coaching staff.
Yin Tiesheng, former coach of Chinese league team Qingdao and men's under-20 national team in 2004, was appointed as the executive head coach of the Olympic team, Chinese Football Association vice chairman Xie Yalong told Xinhua.
Dujkovic, who has been running the under-23 Olympic team since late 2006, has been moved into an advising job, mainly responsible for analysing the opponents.
"The players are not content with the Dujkovic's training methods and strategies, and for the sake of the Olympics, we have to make some changes," said Xie.
"From now on, Yin will be in charge of the training and matches. Since Dujkovic has steered the team for about two years, he is still able to play his part in tactics."
Dujkovic took over as China's senior team coach in January, but the team was disbanded after being knocked out of the first qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup.
China is grouped with Brazil, New Zealand and Belgium in Group C at the Olympic Games in August.
The Beijing Olympic Games will be unlike any before. No previous Olympics have seen the world's fastest trio who are all close contenders for the men's 100 metres gold.
Among them, one is a second-time world record holder who failed to get even one major event title; one is triple World Champion who has never created a legally admitted world record; and one is concentrated more on the 200 metres but breezily lowered the 100m world record by 0.2 sec.
Top three of the only four who have ever finished 100 meters inside 9.80 secs, are to compete for the men's 100 meters.
American Tyson Gay, one of the most frightening sprinters, clocked a wind-aided 9.68 secs at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, last month, making him the world's fastest man under any conditions.
Gay's previous US national record in 9.77 secs is, nevertheless, the third best of all time, but seemed more or less unimpressive.
Gay snatched triple golds in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in 2007 in Osaka, Japan, which helped him join the prestigious peers of Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene, who won three gold medals at a single World Championships.
Jamaican Asafa Powell was frustrated by Gay in the Osaka meet and finished third in 9.96 secs. Major athletics events have proved to be not his game. After finishing fifth at the Athens Games, Powell set the world record twice, 9.77 secs in 2005 and 9.74 secs in 2007.
The 25-year-old Jamaican has run 36 sub-10 second races till now, a record only bettered by US sprinter Maurice Greene with 52 times in his career. Greene created a world record of 9.79 sec in 1999, beating Donovan Bailey's standing record of 9.84 secs, lowering it by the largest margin since the advent of electronic timing. The 33-year-old Greene announced his retirement earlier this year, allegedly due to his nagging injuries.
Powell, by all means, is one of the hardest to beat. He planned to be a mechanic before taking athletics as his career. The Jamaican is one of the only two men who ran under 9.80 seconds legally more than once. His fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt, three years his junior, is a distant second with two sub-9.80 performances.
Bolt is most likely to show up in the Beijing Olympic men's 200m final one day before his 22nd birthday. He stripped Powell of the men's 100m world record in 9.72 sec, May 31 in New York.
Bolt, sometimes viewed as too tall to sprint with his officially-announced height of 1.94m, started training in 100 meters in 2007 after he broke 36-year-old Jamaican national 200m record by 0.11 sec at 19.75 secs.
With the men's 100m world record in hand, Bolt also created the year's best of 200m in 19.67 seconds. He is the favourite who has been expected to break the men's 200m world record held for 12 years by Michael Johnson at 19.32 secs. But Bolt played down the possibility of creating a new 200m world record too soon. "Maybe next year," he said.
Powell said Bolt's record-breaking run in the 100 metres race took off the pressure. "Now I can be a lot more focused on what I need to achieve," Powell said, adding that running within 9.60 seconds in 100 metres was "definitely" going to happen.
"The real challenge is getting the (Olympic) gold medal," he said, calling the Olympics a battle of attrition. Top sprinters have to compete for the gold in four rounds in Olympics. "You just have to run one race for the world record so it's easier," Powell said.
All the top contenders have not won the Olympic men's 100 metres medals, except the 2004 Athens silver medallist Francis Obikwelu of Portugal who clocked 9.86 sec at the event four years ago.
Gay's hope for winning three Olympic golds faded after he was disqualified from the US men's 200m team due to cramp injuries in the US trials last month.
Legendary sprinter Carl Lewis was recently reluctant to predict who would win the men's 100 metres gold at the Beijing Olympics.
"It would not be fair to name one, that could bring too much pressure," said Lewis, who garnered nine Olympic golds and eight world championships during his career.
Canada's top diver Alexandre Despatie has been tipped as the biggest threat to the Chinese dream team at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Though the World Champion did not feature in Canada's Olympic diving trials in June due to injuries, he has qualified directly for the Beijing Games since the 23-year-old is the best in Canada.
"An Olympic gold medal is needed," as Despatie once said. In the 2004 Athens Olympics, he managed a silver in the men's 3 metres springboard and became the first Canadian diver to win an Olympic medal.
At the Beijing Olympics, Despatie, who's good in both springboard and platform, is no doubt the biggest hope for the Canadian team at the Water Cube.
Despatie visited the Water Cube during the FINA diving world cup in February, when his unsteady performance only awarded him a bronze in the 3m springboard synchro. "I can't remember the last time when the Chinese divers didn't win," said Despatie here.
In April, a foot injury forced the Canadian to rest for four to six weeks, which would affect his preparation for the Olympics.
However, he's still the biggest rival for the Chinese diving team.
The diving wunderkind started his career at five. And as early as 13, Despatie began to show his talents. He won the gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, making him the youngest gold medal winner ever in the history of the Games. The achievement earned Despatie a spot in the 2000 Guinness Book of World Records.
At age 15, Despatie made his Olympic debut in the 2000 Sydney Games. He was too young to compete against veteran Russian Dmitri Sautin and the Chinese divers, but still finished fourth in the 10m platform.
After two years hard training, in the 2003 Barcelona World Championships, the 18-year-old defeated Chinese favourites Tian Liang and Hu Jia to claim victory in the 10m platform. It also made him the first diving world champion in Canada's history.
In the 2005 Montreal World Championships, Despatie earned gold medals in both the 1m and 3m springboards, becoming the first diver in history to be world champion in all three diving events. His performance in 3m springboard earned the 20-year-old 813.60 points, the first to win over 800 points in the event.
Despatie was almost unseen in 2006 due to injuries, but he came back in the 2007 Melbourne World Championships and took two silvers in the 3m springboard and 3m springboard synchro.
Xinhua