Europeans dominated the modern pentathlon until Qian Zhenhua of China broke their stranglehold by winning the 2005 world championships in Warsaw, Poland.
He went down in history as the first Asian world titlist at the five-event sport. Now China wants to see more results at the Beijing Games.
"Qian is the first world champion from outside Europe," said Xu Haifeng, head of China's modern pentathlon team. "This has done a lot to promote the sport in China, as well as in the whole of Asia."
Modern pentathlon features shooting, epee fencing, swimming, show jumping and cross-country running in a winner-takes-all last dash format. Points clocked up in the first four events decide athletes' starting positions in the final run, where the first person to cross the line takes gold.
As a sport, it joined the Olympic roster in 1912 as the brainchild of the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin. It was designed to reflect the skills and guile needed by a cavalryman at war, something that had more relevance then than now. Despite this, the sport has only gained in popularity since the women's pentathlon first appeared at the Sydney Games in 2000.
Now head Xu hopes to capitalize and build on that popularity in the world's most populous nation.
Xu, as winner of the 50m pistol event at the 1984 Los Angles Games, also made history as China's first Olympic gold medalist. In November 2004 he was transferred to lead the modern pentathlon team.
"In the past, it was always considered a sport for Europeans, not for Chinese. What I told my team is that it is a sport that combines much technique with strength. Technique has always been a strong point among Chinese athletes, so we can be successful at it," Xu said.
The sport took root in China in 1981 but has yet to gain a strong foothold. For example, there are only 120 registered athletes in the country.
Until 2004, China's best performance at the worlds was fourth place. Then Qian earned Asia's maiden win nine months after Xu was appointed.
"The fighting spirit among our team has improved and now it's time to see the results," Xu said.
If Olympic qualifiers are anything to go by, the future's looking bright for the 2008 hosts.
