Chinese women's quadruple sculls crew seeks title defending

LONDON - Chinese women's quadruple sculls crew made history by taking the country's first Olympic rowing gold four years ago in Beijing, and now they seek to defend the title.

After the Beijing Olympic Games, Xi Aihua, one of the crew members, retired and Tian Liang, a former double sculler, was recruited into the crew.

The foursome made their debut on international stage in 2011 World Rowing Championships in Bled of Slovenia and finished in a fifth place. And in 2012 Belgrade and Lucerne World Cups, they settled for sixth and seventh places repectively.

Despite a lackluster performance, they still set their eyes on retaining the gold medal.

"I hope we can top the podium again in London," said Jin Ziwei. And Tian Liang echoed that they will try to defend the title.

They arrived in London on Friday and started training sessions at Eton Dorney Rowing Center on Saturday.

"Now jet lag is a problem but we will get over it," said Jin after a training session. "This is a team event, so we have to pay more attention to our cooperation and we are now doing some finetuning work."

The Olympic rowing regatta is slated from July 28 to Aug 4.