Canada is eying at least two medals at the "Good luck Beijing" FINA diving World Cup, their head coach said in Beijing on Monday.

 

"We always have high expectations for our team," said Nancy Grolin after Monday's training session, head coach of Canadian national diving team. "We have very good divers and they rank very high in the world."

 

"We want to take two or three medals, possibly more," she added. "It depends on our form. There are many talented divers in all events, so it will be very difficult."

 

According to the coach, Canada will compete in the world series events between now and the middle of June to prepare for the Olympics. And they will come to China for a six-day training campaign in Xi'an at the beginning of August.

 

"The World Cup is our first step in the preparation towards the Olympics in Beijing," said Grolin. "I'm quite excited to be here."

 

"The venue is fantastic, I want to move to China," she added.

 

Different from China, diving is not popular in Canada. "The facility is very expensive. And not the same with China which has facilities delicate for training, we do not have enough facilities. We are working on developing our facilities," she said.

 

The 16th FINA diving World Cup, which runs from Feb. 19 to 25, serves as an Olympic qualifier and attracts 296 divers from 56 countries and regions.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2008)