China's skiers face hard climb to the top

A step forward, but there's still a long way to go, as the alpine skiing event of the Asian Winter Games sees Chinese national champion Liu Xiaochen ranked seventh, China's best result in the sport.

Piers Adrian Iliffe, head coach of the Chinese alpine skiing team, told Xinhua that it would take him a long time to steer Chinese skiers to the top step of the podium.

Iliffe coached team Italy at six Winter Olympics, plus 13 editions of the World Championships. The Italian took over the Chinese alpine skiing team after Beijing 2022.

In Harbin, Liu, Chao Xinbo, Sun Xinmiao and Li Jinyang finished seventh, ninth, 13th and 15th respectively in men's slalom. Ni Yueming ranked eighth and Zhang Guiyuan took the 12th place in women's event.

"I'm pretty satisfied with the results. For the men's team, I think they delivered the best performance of their career," Iliffe said.

"With the women, it could have been better, especially because we have some elder athletes who have more experience," he added.

In Iliffe's view, he brought experience to team China, and tried to copy the European alpine skiing team's training system.

"Also, you know, I keep on getting films and videos from the best skiers in the world. We're doing good work," Iliffe said.

In Harbin, two alpine skiing golds were bagged by Japan, as well as two bronze medals. The skiers from Republic of Korea also pocketed two silver medals on the slopes of the Yabuli ski resort.