Chinese women's judo team are making progress, says coach

Chinese women's judo team are making progress before the upcoming London Olympic Games, said head coach Fu Guoyi here on Tuesday.

"Our judokas are making some progress," he said. "We resolved some problems and found out some ways to deal with our opponents, especially the Japanese."

Chinese women's judo team claimed three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

With the 52kg winner Xian Dongmei retiring after the Beijing Games, +78kg queen Tong Wen and Yang Xiuli of 78kg were left to lead a group of Olympic debutants to defend their titles in London.

The 29-year-old Yang has been dealing with a recurrent shoulder injury which made her competition on and off in the past couple of years.

"Yang's form get better and better," said the coach. "She still has three weeks to come back to her top form."

Eight judokas will be sent to the July 27-August 12 Games. A Lamusi is the only male judoka qualified for the Olympics, who will compete for the men's 60kg.

"We will try our best in every category," Fu said. "We hope we can make some breakthrough in the men's event."