Chinese rowers will aim for eight to ten spots in next year's Olympic Games at the world championships kicked off in Munich, Germany on Sunday.

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics always on mind, China sent their largest ever team including 57 athletes and 10 coaches to the Munich tournament, a major springboard to Beijing.

"Of course we're here for medals, but our priority is to earn as many Olympic places as we can," said Chinese team manager Cao Jingwei.

"We are trying to qualify in eight to ten categories," he said, "we know it is quite a big challenge since it's almost impossible for a nation to qualify for all 14 Olympic categories."

The world rowing season so far has been marked by the success of China. Chinese rowers took 5 medals at the first Rowing World Cup regatta and 10 medals at the second in Amsterdam this season.

As this nation prepares for next year's Olympic Games, all eyes will be on those Chinese crews at Munich.

"Hopefully, we can get good results. But it's also a chance for us to learn more about crews from other countries, especially our potential rivals next year," said Cao.

The Munich championships have allured record entries. Racing in 474 crews, a total of 1,285 athletes from a record 68 countries and regions will take part in the pinnacle event of the 2007 rowing season.

China will compete in all the 14 Olympic disciplines as well as three non-Olympic out of the 23.

At Munich, the top 11 boats in the men's single, pair, double, four, quad and the lightweight men's four and double will qualify for next year's Olympics.

There are seven spots for the men's eight. Amongst the women's events, the women's single has nine spots; the women's pair, double and lightweight double take eight spots. The women's quad seven spots and the women's eight five spots.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2007)