Chinese confident over age checks for gymnasts

Dong Fangxiao (right) was 14-years-old when she won the bronze medal

Chinese officials insist new eligibility rules will end the problem of age falsification in gymnastics.

China were stripped of their women's team bronze from the 2000 Olympics after Dong Fangxiao was found to be 14 years old - two years too young.

Chinese sports officials promised that tighter checks introduced after the scandal would eradicate the problem.

They say the delegation for next month's Youth Olympic Games in Singapore have had stringent checks.

"We've scrutinised every athlete's age for the Youth Olympic Games to make sure there is no-one going to Singapore with a fake age," Cai Zhenhua told Thursday's China Daily .

"We have to make our Chinese delegation very clean and transparent. This is for the benefit of the athletes and the fair play spirit of the Olympics."

Cai added that as well as the documentation analysis on the 70-strong squad, x-ray bone analyses has been carried out on the team's under-16s.

The competition, which starts on 14 August, sees future senior Olympic athletes aged from 14 to 18 take part in all 26 sports on the London 2012 Olympic programme.

Great Britain will be sending a team of 40 competitors to Singapore and there will be daily reports and video highlights on the BBC Red Button and at bbc.co.uk/olympics.

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s, when the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to help protect still-developing athletes from serious injuries.

The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) raised the minimum age to its current 16 in 1997.

Five Chinese gymnasts suspected of being underage at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 were cleared after Chinese officials provided original passports, ID cards and family registers showing all of the gymnasts were old enough to compete.