Only two days before the Olympic rowing regatta kicks off, Chinese rowers slowed down their pace to greet the Olympics' opening.

A coach, who declined to be named, told Xinhua on Thursday that part of the Chinese rowing team took the training at 3:00 PM in front of the boathouse in the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing park.

"Unlike the sprint practices we took on Wednesday, today we take long-distance training sessions just for some adjustments in order to make the Chinese rowers more relaxed before the races."

The other Chinese rowers took a rest on Thursday.

Chinese rowing team came back from Hailin of Heilongjiang Province on August 3 and took to the water the next day after a nine-week summer training, during which the team wrapped up a solid summer training thanks to amicable weather.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2008)