China will send a team combined with veterans and youths to the Aarhus world artistic gymnastics championships in October.

Chinese head coach Huang Yubin hinted on Thursday that Sydney Olympic champions Yang Wei and Huang Xu, who missed the Melbourne championships last year to make places for rookies, would compete in Aarhus, although their leading gymnast Li Xiaopeng had been confirmed to be absent due to injury.

"Different from the Melbourne tournament, this time we will select gymnasts depending on their performances. I think it will be a squad consisting of veterans and young gymnasts," he said.

The national side started a five-day test match on Monday and the results would be counted as qualifying reference. Huang said Yang and Huang Xu were quite good in the test.

He promised that Chinese team, eager to make a strong comeback after Athens waterloo in 2004, would exert themselves for good results.

"This tournament will be the first world championships to adopt new rules and therefore is very important for each team. And it's an opportunity for us to restore image. We will try our bests," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2006)