China's water events rowing, canoeing and sailing may not be able to repeat the glory at the Beijing Olympic Games but Zhang Xiuyun, China's best female rower, is surely one of the gold hopefuls.

China won three gold medals in Beijing in water events including women's quadruple sculls of rowing, men's canoe sprint double (C2) 500m, women's RS:X of sailing, a historic result for China in Olympic Games. Before that, China only won a gold medal also in men's C2 500m at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

In 2008, Zhang Xiuyun, who was runner-up in women's double sculls at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, secured a fourth place in single sculls, China's best result in Olympic singles rowing.

Although having retired after China's National Games in 2009, Zhang resumed the sport in 2010 in the hope of making the podium in London. "My Olympic dream never ends." said the 36-year-old Zhang, "And I am more mentally mature. Unlike the mentality that I must win the champion in Beijing, I am now enjoying the sport. It doesn't matter if I can't win a gold in London. A third place is already a breakthrough both for me and for China."

Zhang went back to the world top in 2011 with a silver medal in World Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland and fourth place in the world championships in Bled, Slovenia. In 2012, Zhang crowned in World Cup races in Belgrade of Serbia and Lucerne of Switzerland.

"My biggest opponent will be myself though Mirka Knapkova of Czech Republic and Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus pose great threat to me." added Zhang. Knapkova was defending world champion but lost twice to Zhang in the World Cup in 2012. Two-time Olympic champion Karsten won the third World Cup event this year.

Besides Zhang, Xu Dongxiang began her third Olympic quest. The 28-year-old settled for fifth place in women's lightweight double sculls both in Athens and Beijing. Xu and Huang Wenyi won the Lucerne World Cup this year, beating world best time holders Louise Ayling and Julia Edward from New Zealand and reigning world champions Christina Giazitzidou and Alexandra Tsiavou from Greece.

"Xu and Huang are now in good form and they have strong confidence."said Wang Du, director of China's Water Events Administration Center.

China's canoe sprint used to be a stronghold as Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun crowned twice in men's C2 500m in Athens and Beijing. However, on August 13, 2009, International Olympic Committee made a decision to replace men's canoe 500m events with 200m. That meant China's advantage built up in the past eight years was gone. China has to focus on 1000m and pin high hopes on Li Qiang and Huang Maoxing.

Li participated in men's C1 500m and finished sixth in Beijing, a best ever result for China's C1 in Olympics. The duo ranked fifth in Poland World Cup this year.

"Our biggest problem is we don't have a stable performance." said Li, "So we will try to solve this problem in the remaining days (before the London Olympics)."

Another gold point for China is Xu Lijia, who won a bronze medal in women's laser radial at the Beijing Olympic Games.

"Xu is a genius for the sport as she became a world champion in 2006 only eight months after she changed from Europe to Laser Radial."said Wang Du, "In the past four years, Xu becomes more mature. She used to have a false start problem, which disqualified her in 2011 world championships. Now she has solved the problem."

Wang added that Xu studied in Shanghai Jiao Tong University when nursing her waist injury. "During her study life, she had a good rest both physically and mentally." said Wang.

Good rest has helped Xu make more achievements in competitions as she won the 2011 Helsinki European Championships and 2012 Miami World Cup. "Good results also helped build up Xu's confidence and ablity to read competitions." said Wang.

Though China has several gold hopefuls, Wang still played down their winning prospects. "The results in World Cup and world championships only show we have the ability to win but Olympics are totally different."