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De Haan: Beijing smog awful
Tuesday 29 July 2008
The Netherlands' Olympic football
coach Fopp de Haan has described the smog in Beijing
as "awful" as his team prepared in Hong Kong
for the Games in ten days time.
De Haan said his side had trained
in a special gym back home to prepare them for the hot
and humid conditions in Hong Kong and mainland China,
but he admitted there was no way of replicating the
smog.
"That's a problem," De
Haan said at a press conference ahead of a four-team
pre-Olympic tournament where the Dutch are expected
to prove why they are one of the favourites for gold
in Beijing.
"I heard today if you are
trying to look at the Olympic stadium (in Beijing),
you can't see it from 500 metres. It's awful, I think."
But De Haan said their team doctor
had told him the players would adapt.
"The doctor told us if you
spend five days there it will no longer be a problem
because you get used to it. But the doctor also said
even if you don't have asthma in Holland you can have
it here. But that's no problem and we can handle it."
The Netherlands play Cameroon on
Wednesday the 7th, followed by Ivory Coast on Saturday.
The fourth team competing is the
United States.
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