Road Cycling: Three more WCC trainees selected for Beijing

(BEIJING, August 24) -- The World Cycling Center (WCC) has three more alumni sweeping up berths for the summer Olympics in Beijing.

Rafaa Chtioui of Tunisia, hichem Chabane of Algeria and Mario Cantreras of El Salvador were each selected by their respective national cycling federations to compete in the 248.5km road race in Beijing. The opening day race scheduled for Saturday, August 9 will be an Olympic debut for all three cyclists.

WCC Coach Michel Theze explained that the key issue for the outgoing trainees lies in how they transition to the longer distance in Beijing compared with their previous races. In preparation for the event Mario Contreras warmed up by participating in the 260km Grand Prix Cristal Energie in France earlier this month.

Nineteen-year-old Hichen Chabane returns to competition in full force after recovering from a broken collar bone sustained this May.

Rafaa Chtioui (22) has returned to Algeria prior to the Olympics after completing extensive training at the WCC facility in Switzerland.

Two other trainees, Ahmed Belgasem of Libya and Lee Min-Hye of the Republic of Korea also earned tickets to Beijing, joining nine other recently announced athletes from WCC who will be competing in the BMX, track and mountain bike events at the 2008 Olympics.

So far selected trainees include:

Track (August 15-19)