The scorching sun didn't seem to wither the enthusiam of Chinese shooters and archers, who were about to leave for the Olympic Village on Sunday afternoon.

Standing in red or yellow suits on the square of western Beijing's shooting compound, the 40 members from China's shooting squad and 18 from archery team vowed to earn more medals at the 29th Olympics on their own soil.

"We bear the hope of all Chinese shooters and archers," said Gao Zhidan, director of the Shooting and Archery Administrative Center.

"We will try to make the national anthem resound on the Olympic arena," he said.

Sun Shengwei, shotgun coach of the Chinese shooting team, said he was "excited before starting for the Olympic Village".

"We have prepared four years for this event. Now we are here, we will give full play to our capacities," he said.

China nipped its historic first Olympic gold in shooting when Xu Haifeng was crowned at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

A super power in shooting sport, the 2008 Games host country has a strong shooting team that includes Olympic champions Du Li, Zhu Qinan and Jia Zhanbo. Besides, a handful of other world medalists are also expected to make a breakthrough.

August 9 will see the first Olympic gold medal produced from women's 10-meter air rifle event.

"The competition could be intense and difficult, but Du Li is hopeful to defend her title," said Wang Yifu, shooting head coach.

Another Chinese markswoman in the discipline, Zhao Yinghui, is also in good form, he added.

Du made her name by grabbing a gold in the 2004 Olympic Games, edging ace shooters Katerina Kurkova, Lioubov Galkina and Sonja Pfeilschifter. Her teammate Zhao had harvested several gold medals in shooting world cups, and was eager to nail down an Olympic medal that eluded her twice.

In comparison, Chinese archers were more repressed, as archers seemed to be "destined" as runners-up. Archers won silver medals at Los Angeles, Barcelona, Atlanta and Athens Olympics, but never enjoyed the tint of gold to date.

Reigning position of South Korea seemed hard to shake. "To South Korea, archery is like table tennis to China," said Chinese archery management chief Zhou Yuan.

However, new rules were about to be implemented, which reduced the total number of shots from 18 to 12. Host advantage is also likely to help Chinese archers break the spell.

The athletes started for the Olympic Village at 3:15 p.m. in two buses, arriving about half an hour later. With them went their pledges.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2008)