Romania's diving team hoped to reach the finals, or the last eight, in the Olympic Games to be held in the Water Cube, their coach said in Beijing on Tuesday.

"Final is very good," said Claudia Tiu, coach of the Romanian team. "Medal is too hard, and our expectation is to make the finals."

The Romanian team, who has only one coach and two divers, was the second team to have a training session in the Water Cube Tuesday morning, only after the British squad.

"We only have two divers to compete the Beijing Games, a boy and a girl," said the coach. "They will both dive in the 10m platform."

Constantin Popovici and Ramona Maria Ciobanu both competed in the Athens Olympics four years ago but neither qualified for the finals.

"Diving in our country is not very popular," said Tiu. "We have only one diving pool in the whole country, and the facilities are poor. It's very difficult."

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2008)