Coach of China's baseball team Jim Lefebvre said Saturday that China stands little chance of winning an Olympic baseball medal at the Beijing Games, and his No. 1 goal for the players is to enjoy the atmosphere of the games.
Facing such strong rivals as the United States, Cuba and Japan, China is not in the position of winning a medal, said Lefebvre, the former U.S. Major League Baseball player who has been coaching the Chinese team for five years.
However he said the players have made huge improvement in these years. "Look at what we were five years ago. And now we can at least seriously play the baseball game," he said.
He said some of the Chinese players also have good speed or strength, but he would insist that they first stick to the fundamentals of this sport and play baseball as they were trained.
The Olympic baseball matches will be held on Aug. 13-23, with eight teams including the Netherlands, Canada, South Korea and Chinese Taipei.
Baseball will not be included in the 2012 Lodon Games.
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