BEIJING,March 1 (Reuters)-China hailed its best ever Winter Olympicson Monday,
crediting technology,foreigncoachesandevenimproved language skills for the winning five
gold,two silver and four bronze medals in Vancouver.
     Only eight years after skater Yang Yang (A) won the country's first Winter gold at Salt
Lake City,a sweep of the women's short track speed skating and a first figure skating title
helped China to joint seventh place in the medals table.
     "Gold Standard" read the banner headline on the front page China Daily,while the
People's Daily led its sports page with "Vancouver historical breakthrough"．
     "We have made an important breakthrough at these Games," Xiao Tian,deputy chefde
mission of China's largest ever Winter Games delegation,told the Xinhua news agency.
     "Actually the fivegold finish was within my expectation before we set off for the Games,
but I couldn't say that at that time because I would not want to put any pressure on the
athletes.Now I can speak out."
     Xiao was quick to return to the earlier subject of conversation to pessimistic (悲观) type,
however,when discussing the future,emphasizingthe huge task the Winter Sports administration
 faced to close the gap on their Summer counterparts,who toppled the table at the 2008
Beijing Olympics.
     "Despite the good results at these Games,we still have a long way to go in the development
of China's winter sports," he said.
     "It's impossible for us to reach the same level as we have done in Summer sports,but we
will try to minimize the gap as much as we can."
     Xiao said that progress would come not through a vast expansion of the Winter sports
programme but by using the best coaches,wherever they came from,and technology.