Shi Dongpeng (l) with Liu Xiang (r) - after their 7th and 3rd place finishes in the 2003 World Champs 110mH Final (© Getty Images)
28yearold Zhou Can achieved the best result of day two at the Chinese World Championships Trials in Suzhou on Saturday.
The very experienced Zhou, who also has competed internationally in the Olympic Games and World Indoor Championships in 2004, bounced back after being hampered with injuries since his best career season in 2004. Hunan athlete, whose last eight metre competition had come more than two years ago in April 2004, won the competition with a big personal best 8.22m, bettering his old one (8.11m in 1999/2003/2004) by 11cm. Zhou, who has an indoor best 8.13m from 2004, booked his place on the Osaka team because his result betters the A-standard.
The long jump competition was of high quality – 18-year-old Zhang Xiaoyi took second place with a season’s best 8.09m and Li Runrun reached the same result 8.09m, also a personal best. The fourth Chinese over 8m this season, Gao Hongwei, was fourth with a 7.98m result.
In Liu’s absence, Shi battles with Xing
Another highlight of the evening was the men’s 110m Hurdles final. World record holder Liu Xiang is competing in Eugene on Sunday, but Shi Dongpeng, very fast this season with a 13.24s personal best, was a winner only with the narrowest of margins before Xing Yanan. Shi won in 13.53s before Xing, who set a PB 13.54s for the second place. Both athletes have now secured a place on the Osaka team to accompany Liu Xiang at the World Championships.
The men’s 400m final witnessed 19-year-old Liu Xiaosheng, from Guangdong, win in a fast 45.79s result. Liu, who trained at Baylor University in the summer of 2006, narrowly missed the national junior record 45.55 set by Xu Zizhou in 2000. But the youngster will be happy because he did achieve the B-standard for the World Championships and that ensures a place on the team. 45.79 is the second fastest time by a Chinese junior all-time and fourth fastest overall on the Chinese all-time list. Liu is the third fastest junior in the world this season behind Americans LaJerald Betters (45.33) and Bryshon Nellum (45.54).
In the men’s Shot Put the Chinese number one Zhang Qi was not competing and 20-year-old Guo Yanxiang, the bronze medallist at the 2006 Beijing World Junior Championships, won with a 18.51m toss.
In the absence of the only Chinese to exceed 8000 points in Decathlon, Qi Haifeng, Yu Bin took the title with 7759 points before Zhu Hengjun, who set a personal best 7541p for the second place. 19-year-old Guo Weizhao also set a PB in third place with 7346p.
In the women’s events discus was the best in terms of results. 24-year-old Sun Taifeng made a big improvement of exactly two metres to her previous best of 62.98m which she had thrown in New Delhi in September 2006. Sun will be looking forward to her first major championships in Osaka. The other two members of the Chinese team in World Champs will be Song Aimin, who placed second with 60.76m and Li Yanfeng third 60.27m. All three athletes have already reached the A-standard 61.00m this season. Sun places fifth on the 2007 world list with her 64.98m winning mark.
Asian Games winner from 2006 in the women’s Triple Jump, Xie Limei, was the only Chinese woman to exceed 14m today. 14.17m was enough for the win and Xie will be a part of the World Champs team since she has reached the A-standard this season. 21-year-old Li Qian set a personal best to take second with 13.84m result.
In the women’s Pole Vault two top names Gao Shuying and Zhang Yingzhu, already clear for the Osaka team, did not start. In the absence of the stars, it was only 17-year-old Li Ling who took the title with a fine 4.30m personal best. Li had jumped 4.15m last season and equalled that earlier PB this spring. Former youth star Wu Sha was second with a season’s best 4.15m. Now 19 years old, Wu jumped her personal best 4.30m in 2003 being only 15 years of age at the time.
Zhang Rong was the fastest over 100m hurdles in 13.39s and Tang Xiaoyin just edged 400m hurdles specialist Huang Xiaoxiao in the 400m finals with times being 52.94s and 52.99s respectively.
In addition to the best Chinese competing abroad at the time of these trials, some young stars also are missing because they are only concentrating on the City Games held in October. The trials for the City Games, a U-21 competition, were held last week for women and two weeks ago for men.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
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