Sunday, 20.08.2006	posted by Cindy Garcia-Bennett  18:23pm
Category: FIBA World Championship

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NO PAIN, NO GAIN FOR YAO!

China center Yao Ming is getting no special treatment from coach Jonas Kazlauskas.

The boss who hails from Lithuania, a strict but highly efficient tactician, wants to make sure he will have the 2.26m tall player at his best for the sport's biggest event, the FIBA World Championship.

Yao, who underwent surgery on his foot almost four months ago, could have opted to spend the summer drinking iced tea and eating Tex-Mex back in Houston but it's not in his character.

"It's the highest honour for me to wear the Chinese national jersey and I can fight for my country," Yao said to PA Sport on behalf of FIBA after practice.

Instead, the 25-year-old is in Sapporo sweating it out in every training session, desperate to recover his fitness.

He only joined up with the rest of his team-mates earlier this month having spent most of his summer training five hours a day in Shangai and he is playing catch up although he knows it's a slow process.

"I am pushing myself harder to get back to the court," Yao said. I'm not in great shape but I'm ok, I only returned to play a contact game with the rest of my team-mates a few weeks ago and it's still too early from a fitness standpoint."

Yao does give all of his heart but he is still frustrated with his condition and expressions of pain and anger are often seen in his face during practice.

It doesn't help that Kazlauskas has no mercy for the giant.

During practice, Yao and several other players were forced to run four times up and down the court by Kazlauskas as punishment for their poor defensive showing during a training game.

It could have been worse, they could have been made to do some push-ups, another agonising exercise in Kazlauskas' books.