Gu Yuan winning the women's Hammer at the Asian Champs (© IAAF Correspondent)
Gu Yuan, the Asian champion was surprised in her first meeting of the season on Friday (26 March) in Chengdu, Sichuan Province which witnessed her Asian women's Hammer record (72.03m) surpassed by compatriot Zhang Wenxiu's 72.95m
Qualification surprise as Zhang Wenxiu throws 72.95m
Gu, who finished fourth in the World Championships last summer just narrowly missing a medal, competed in a special competition for Chinese women hammer throwers preparing for the Olympics.
The competition included a preliminary round where a mandatory 69.00m qualification limit had to be conquered to advance to the final. The hard qualifying limit was used to put the pressure on the athletes as if it was a major competition because the Chinese throwers were in trouble in Paris last season in the World Championships qualification round.
Gu, easily the best Asian hammer thrower over last few years, qualified very well with her first throw of 71.86m, only 17cm off her Asian record (72.03m), but the real surprise came next.
Zhang Wenxiu, who also competed in Paris qualification, unleashed a huge personal best of 72.95m. This was almost one metre more than Gu's Asian record and 2.35m over her previous best (70.60m) from April 2003.
Gu wins final – 71.97m
The final was another high standard competition, but this time Gu took her place back recording her second best career throw of 71.97m to win comfortably before Zhang's 70.93m. This competition shows that the routine level of these two Chinese throwers is not much better than last season but that they have to be considered for the medal placings in Athens this summer.
------------
NB. World Junior Record?
At the moment Zhang is given a date of birth 22 March 1986 by the China AA, but if this is the same Zhang who competed in the 2001 Edmonton World Championships, she was earlier credited with a DOB of 11.02.1983.
Of course, if the 1986 DOB is correct then Zhang's mark is well over the standing World Junior mark of 71.71m by Kamila Skolimowska (POL).
------------
