China's No.1 men's speed skating sprinter Yu Fengtong, who took a silver medal in the opening day's men's 500-meter race and a bronze in the 100-meter race two days later, quit the 1,000-meter race due to strained right leg muscles.

The performances of the Chinese skaters were polished thanks to the introduction of former Dutch speed skater Sijtle Van Der Lende, the first ever foreign coach of China's national speed skating team, who took the helm last June focusing on China's long-course skaters and some of the sprinters as well.

"I think my team can now call themselves one of the best teams in the world," she said after China won the women's team pursuit.

But due to the absence of some world-class competitors in the Universiade, the Dutch woman still believes that China's goal of lifting Olympic golds on the ice relies on the short course, namely the men's and women's 500-meter race.

In figure skating that drew 204 participants from 26 countries and regions, China swept top places in pairs' and men's figure skating events. The other three figure skating golds went to Japan, Israel and Sweden respectively.

Pairs top favorites Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao, the Turin Winter Olympic silver medalists, collected an astonishing 195.32 points on short program and free skate to win the third consecutive title at the Universiade. They had a 50-point lead over second finishers Ksenia Ozerova and Alexander Enbert of Russia.

A surprise for China was 27-year-old Xu Ming, champion of the 2007 Asian Winter Games, who staged a flawless free skate to win the men's gold medal.

"Xu's victory was great encouragement for the country's men's skating event," said Yang Dong, a senior official of the Competition Committee of the Universiade, to Xinhua. "But his overall 179.96 scores was far from the world record of more than 250 points," he added.

China collected both aerial individual titles thanks to Olympic women's silver medalist Li Nina and 18-year-old Jia Zongyang, who captured his first title at international competitions.

In mixed team competition, the two individual champions joined hands with Liu Zhongqiang, the runner-up in men's individual, to win the title, followed by Belarus and Russia.

China's top snowboard seed Liu Jiayu won the women's half-pipe event by showing her best form and dazzling aerial tricks. She gained 46.7 points.

Starting professional training in 2003, 18-year-old Liu won a first ever gold medal at the World Championships in South Korea for both herself and China last month.

Liu will spearhead Chinese snowboarders in the 2010 Games after the Chinese skiers made their Winter Olympics debut in 2006 in Turin, Italy, where Pan Wei and Sun Zhifeng finished 28th and 31st in the women's competitions respectively.

"I really love it (half-pipe) to the degree that one couldn't imagine. When you listen to some hip-hop background beat, you can ski with the board freely. That's the sport life that I want," Liu said in an article on the website people.com.cn.

Apart from the harvests in such traditional favorite fields as speed skating, short track, freestyle aerials and figure skating, the most inspiring success for China came from the women's curling and biathlon mass start events.

In the curling final, the Chinese women edged out hot seed Canada 6:5 for their first international team title in winter sports. The men's team took the bronze by beating South Korea in the third-place decider.

With a thrilling victory in the women's mass start 12.5-km race, 18-year-old Song Chaoqing won China the first biathlon gold at the Winter Universiade after she missed five of all 20 targets in the four shooting rounds and finished the race in 39 minutes and 13.4 seconds.

The Chinese women's ice hockey team also made its statement winning the silver medal in a 1:3 loss to Canada in the final.

Better infrastructure needed

Injecting more than $44 million on the infrastructures and facilities, Harbin received thumb-ups from the International University Sports Federation (FISU) for its organizing work, moving closer to its goal of bidding for a Winter Olympics.

"By hosting this Universiade in such a successful manner, the Organizing Committee of Harbin and the Federation of University Sport of China confirmed its ability to organize a winter world-class multi-sport event," George Killian, President of FISU, said in his closing speech.

Jeannette Johnson, FISU Director of Curling, also fueled Harbin's hope, saying the curling venue had met Olympic standards.

Li Zhanshu, Governor of Heilongjiang and President of the Organizing Committee for Harbin Winter Universiade, revealed that Harbin is determined to host the 2022 Winter Games.

The current problem mainly remains in the snow events, said Fritz Holzer, honorary member of the FISU, during his inspection of the Heilongjiang-based Yabuli ski resort. He suggested that better infrastructure needed in the next few years in order to bid for the 2018 or 2022 Winter Olympics.

"Yabuli needs to build other courses like bobsled course," said Holzer, adding that the ski jump should be upgraded to a steep slope.

Xiao Tian, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee, agreed and told Xinhua that the Winter Olympic Games are quite different from Winter Universiade, and Harbin still has much to improve.