Liu Xiang stars for his third gold - Chinese National Games, Day 5

The fifth day of competition (25) at the 11th National Games in Jinan, China, was maybe the most anticipated one, after all, except for his comeback run in Shanghai last month and the qualifying rounds here, it meant the return of the country’s beloved star Liu Xiang to major competition, at least on a Chinese scale.

During the men’s 110m Hurdles Final, which was run on a cool evening with temperature of 19 degrees Celsius, some surprises were seen, but Liu did not provide one of them, winning his third successive National Games title, the first athlete in this event to do so in the history of the Games.

Again the hype at the stadium, in TV and other media was enormous. Hundreds of people were waiting outside the warm-up field when the hurdle ace arrived wearing a white track suit. During the evening the TV cameras and reporters were many times following Liu although there was competition going on at the same time.

Challenged hard but Liu takes 13.34 sec victory

With the temperature down from the last two days and a difficult wind on Sunday evening it was clear the 110m hurdles final was not going to be a fast one. Liu was explosive off the blocks taking a clear lead at the second hurdle and seemed to have won it already half way to the race with his biggest rival well behind at this stage.

But something seemed to happen after this as suddenly Ji Wei, an Army athlete who finished eighth in Berlin, closed in on Liu. But this was just temporary with Liu finding his stride again after the eighth hurdle and Ji could not even dream of passing Liu for the win in the end.

In a 0.9 m/s headwind Liu was timed 13.34sec for his third successive win at the National Games with the first one coming in 2001 when he was 18-years-old. Ji Wei was second in 13.42 and Shi Dongpeng third clocking 13.63. Just 19-year-old Xie Wenjun took the third place in 13.68.

Li Mingxuan, unchallenged at 200m

In the men’s 200m final, 23-year-old Li Mingxuan had made himself the number one favourite with an impressive 20.81 win in the semi-final and no-one could challenge him in the final either.

The Heilongjiang athlete led after the first 100 metres and took the win in strong 1.4 m/s headwind still clocking a 20.79 personal best. Huang Wei was second in 20.98 and 17-year-old Huang Xiang set a national youth record 20.99 for the third place just edging pre-Games favourite Wang Chengliang who finished fast passing several athlete with his last strides but missed out on a medal clocking 21.00.

In the women’s 200m final Jiang Lan led the race from the start and seemed to be taking the win too, but her Jiangsu teammate Chen Jue caught her just before the finish line to win in a 23.45sec personal best, with Jiang clocking a 23.48 season’s best. Wang Yingju was third in 23.79, also a season’s best.

Huang Xiaoxiao back from injury and now looking for a third gold

Both 400m Hurdles finals seemed to be affected by the wind. In the men’s race most athletes didn’t get too close to their best times, but the reigning champion from 2005, Meng Yan, was in his own class winning the first athletics gold for Jilin province. Meng was clearly not interested in the time as he started dancing in the last 30 metres finally jumping high over the finish line clocking a 50.04 season’s best despite the theatrics. Li Guangjin took the silver in 50.75 followed by Zhang Shibao.

In the women’s 400m hurdles reigning champion Huang Xiaoxiao completed the second 400m/400m hurdles double in a row. Huang had won both events in 2005 and did the same trick here clocking 55.49 for an easy win in her golden spikes which she threw to the audience after the race.

Pa Amei set a personal best 56.73 for the second place and 18-year-old Yang Qi also set PB 56.83 for third. 25-year-old Zhang Rongrong who had been third in 2005 now finished in fourth place in 56.98 season’s best.

26-year-old Huang was injured in the summer 2008 and could not compete in Beijing Olympics only coming back to competition in July. In Berlin she clocked a 55.40 season’s best in the semi-finals just missing it by 0.09 seconds here mostly because of her extended celebration after the last hurdle.

Huang, who was fifth twice in a row in World Championships 2005 and 2007, will try yet again to win her third gold medal in these Games on Monday evening’s 4x400m relay. In Nanjing 2005 she just fell short starting the relay for Shandong team which finished in second place losing by just 0.12 seconds to Guangdong.

Zheng Xingjuan retains her new found level to win with 1.95m leap

In the women’s high jump there was only one favourite, Zheng Xingjuan from Fujian province. The 20-year-old has been the top high jumper in China since 2005 when she cleared a 1.92m national junior and youth record just after her 16th birthday. Zheng went on to clear the same height 1.92 in 2006 and 2007 and also won the silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Beijing. But her results did not get better as she seemed to be stuck at the same level jumping 1.91 in 2008 and on two occasions in 2009 before finally getting to a new level at the National Games.

In this competition Zheng cleared every height from 1.75 to 1.91 with her first attempt and with the other competitors unable to clear 1.91, she moved to 1.95 clearing the personal best height with her second attempt which was also well over the bar suggesting more improvement could be on the way. 1.95 was the winning height for Zheng with the next two athletes Gu Xuan and Qiao Yanrui tied at 1.88 having the exact same stats in the competition. A personal best for Gu and a season’s best for Qiao.

Favourite Xie Limei beaten by Chen Yufei’s personal best

One of the first major upsets came in the women’s Triple Jump where 20-year-old Chen Yufei set a personal best 14.11m to defeat a clear favourite Xie Limei who could only manage a 14.08 best jump for the second place.

Xie who was seventh in Osaka World Champs 2007 and also made the final at the Olympics and in Berlin this summer, had a 14.62 season’s best from Berlin qualification but could just not find her best form today. Xie, who jumped 14.90 Asian record (since beaten) in 2007 and also won the 2006 Asian Championships was already fourth in 2005 Games and was expected to win here as other competitors personal bests were about half a metre from her season’s best.

The winner Chen Yufei came to the competition with a 14.10 personal best and added one centimetre to that for the win. Liu Yanan was third with 14.04.

Qi Haifeng’s 7941pts win signals upward march

In the men’s Decathlon national record holder (8290 in 2005) Qi Haifeng is finally moving back up again after a few quiet seasons. Qi even set one personal best, 10.86 in the 100m and got close in a couple of other events to grab his third successive National Games title with 7941 points total score, a season’s best for the 26-year-old. This result is Qi’s best wind legal score since May 2005 when he scored the 8290 national record in Götzis, Austria.

Yu Bin scored 7791 points for a season’s best and second place, but the 23-year-old Sichuan athlete was let down by one event during the decathlon. Yu had cleared 4.60 both indoors and outdoors this season in Pole Vault, but could only clear 4.20 here losing valuable points and the fight for the gold medal too.

Zhu Hengjun was third with a 7708 personal best setting personal bests in four individual events too.

The 11th National Games will conclude on Monday with 12 finals during the final day, eight individual and four relays.

Mirko Jalava for the IAAF

Click here for RESULTS