Gymnastics giant China doesn't worry about the Olympic equipment which is provided by the world-known Dutch company Janssen-Fritsen and already widely used in China.

Willem Bouwman, the export manager of Janssen-Fritsen, told Xinhua at the Athens Olympic Indoor Stadium on Sunday that they had become a supplier for major international competitions since the Mexico Olympic Games in 1969.

"Since then, our company had provided gymnastics equipment for 37 world-class competitions including the Munich Games in 1972, the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and many world and European championships," he added.

"In bidding for the supplier of the Athens Olympics, we beat five opponents from Europe, America and Japan," he noted.

"We have invested a lot to upgrade gymnastics equipment in a bid to raise gymnasts' ability to perform better on the equipment," he said.

"As our company has already explored the Chinese market, I believe that the Chinese gymnasts are quite familiar with the equipment," he said.

The Olympic gymnastics competition will kick off on August 14 and the men's team gold medal will be the first to come out on August 16. China, who took the gold in Sydney, is most favored for the title.

(CRI August 9, 2004)