Athletes from Hebei province are busy training for the coming National Games, in the aim of winning more medals.

The 12th National Games will start on Aug 31 in Shenyang, Liaoning province, and run for 13 days. During preliminary contests, the Hebei team has won nine gold medals, ranking 19th, and 454 athletes will compete in 23 sports and 192 events at the nationals.

"The province team faces many challenges in the coming national competition, because we did not have any gold medalists from the London Olympics, and have many senior and injured athletes while the young ones are not experienced enough," said Zhang Jianxin, spokesman for Hebei Provincial Sports Bureau, on Tuesday.

"But all our athletes and coaches have strong determination and keep excellent morale, which will help our team perform well," he said.

The Hebei team is competitive in sports including diving, judo, rowing, young men's volleyball, young men's basketball and young women's football, where they have a fair chance to win medals.