Lenovo chairman cheers sculls champions

By Song Ping (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-19 08:30

Yang Yuanqing, chairman of Lenovo Group, said he was thrilled to see four Chinese women rowers finish first in women's quadruple sculls on August 17.

He was at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Park to cheer on the team.

Their success broke the monopoly of European countries in the event for 100 years.

Last year, Lenovo Group and the aquatic sports management center of the General Administration of Sport of China became partners in the center and four national teams in canoeing, kayaking, rowing and sailing.

According to the agreement, both sides helped establish "Lenovo China Aquatic Sports Scientific Training Work Station", with the computer maker supplying laptops, desktop computers, servers and printing equipment to training bases in Qingdao of Shandong province, Qiandao Lake of Zhejiang province and Hailin of Heilongjiang province.

"Lenovo warmly congratulates the quadruple sculls' success in winning the championship. I am extremely happy to be a witness to your success." said Yang.

"It is an honor that Lenovo is able to help the aquatic sports to create outstanding achievement. Your striving spirit has just shown the charm of Olympics. It has greatly impressed the audience," he said.

Rowing sports involve many elements - racers, boats, wind and water. It is one of the sports with high science content. Rowing requires elaborate studies on the strength of sculling and the speed of the boat.

To conduct an overall survey of a real boat in motion requires timely feedback and calculation of enormous data and needs the analysis on the data structure during the whole process.

Information science and technology play key roles.

The construction of the Lenovo training station brings sports research and innovation to the forefront of training monitoring.

The hi-tech training information system supports the scientific training and enhanced the results - all leading to the first rowing gold for China.

The last breathtaking charge into the last 250 m of the 2,000 m row, the Chinese team overtook the world champion crew from Great Britain.

The four crew members - Tang Bin, Xi Aihua, Jin Ziwei and Zhang Yangyang - were full of tears of joy atop the podium.

"We made it for Chinese rowing," said 22-year-old Jin Ziwei, a Jiangxi native who was among the women's eight crew that finished just behind bronze medalist the Netherlands in Athens four years ago.

"After the finish line, it was like a dream come true. All these years, Chinese rowers finally did it."

The four started well with the quickest stroke rate among the six boats in the final and held on to a top three position in the first 1,500 m.

Xi Aihua said she always had faith in the crew's ability to snare the gold.

"We always have faith in teammates," said the 26-year-old girl who has been rowing for 10 years.

(China Daily 08/19/2008 page16)