Liu Xiang makes his comeback from injury taking second place in the 2009 Shanghai Golden Grand Prix (© Getty Images)
Yesterday's fourth day (24) of the 11th Chinese National Games in Jinan, China was carried out in warm weather with the temperature at 25-26 degrees Celsius at the start of evening and morning competition.
Day four only featured three finals and witnessed continued success of athletes who did well in Berlin at the World Championships with bronze medallist there, Liu Hong winning her first National Games 20km Race Walk title comfortably.
But the most anticipated and followed event of the evening was not a final because the number one Chinese athlete Liu Xiang made his first appereance in these Games. The media and crowd hype was absolutely enormous with more than 100s of different photographs published concerning the 2004 Olympic and 2007 World 110m Hurdles champion: Liu leaving the hotel, Liu coming to warm-up field, Liu warming up, Liu stretching, Liu walking to call-up room, Liu coming to the stadium, Liu competing…. And like an army of ants the photographers followed Liu after he had easily qualified for the final producing thousands of more pictures of the star.
Li Shaojie times peak to perfection
In the actual competition 33-year-old veteran discus thrower Li Shaojie grabbed an historic fourth gold in one event. Li, competing in front of his home Shandong crowd, once competed in international level too placing ninth at the 1999 World Championships in Seville and set 65.16m Asian record (since beaten) which still stands as the national record in 1996. He won his first National Games title in the prestigious 1993 Games in Beijing as a 17-year-old with 60.86 and then suffered the narrowest of losses in Shanghai 1997 placing second with 62.52 only 18 centimetres behind Yu Wenge. Li won in 2001 in Guangzhou with 62.84 and in 2005 Nanjing with 62.85.
In the competition this time in Jinan, Li had to work hard. Coming to the competition his season’s best had only been 56.70 prior to September when he progressed to 58.89 at the National Grand Prix Final. Here Li started the competition with 57.76 with 23-year-old Wu Jian taking the lead with 60.07 in the first round. Li then improved to 59.48 in round three, a season’s best before fouling the next two attempts. With two throwers left in the competition Li stepped to the ring, probably for the last time in National Games, taking his time and asking for crowd support. The concentration was successful as he was able to unleash a 60.39 leading throw, another season’s best and his first 60-metre throw since the last National Games in 2005.
As a curiosity he did also not exceed 60 metres between the 2001 and 2005 National Games competitions so he really knows how to time his form to this important meet. The last time Li threw more than 60 metres outside the three National Games wins was in June 2001 when he won the Kozanov Memorial in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with a 60.05 result.
Wu was unable to answer with Li’s last throw and finished second in his first National Games, his first major achievement since a silver medal at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada.
The major disappointment in the competition was 26-year-old Liaoning athlete Wu Tao, who outside the National Games has been the top thrower in China for the last seven years and has also broken 60 metres in nine successive seasons since he was 18 years old in 2001. Wu, who has a 60.15 season’s best from April, could only come up with a 51.58 throw in the first three rounds finishing in 13th place in the competition.
Berlin bronze medallist Liu Hong’s title, as expected
In the women’s 20km Race Walk which was held in the morning fast times had been expected, but the surprisingly warm weather dashed those hopes. However, Berlin bronze medallist, 22-year-old Liu Hong was still the strongest as expected winning in 1:28:11, her season’s best time.
There was a surprise as behind Liu 19-year-old Li Yanfei, yet another Shandong athlete performing well in front of home crowd, lowered her personal best by almost two and a half minutes to 1:28:57 to take the silver medal. Li, who won a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships last year, had not been considered a medal favourite before the competition. The reigning National Games winner from 2005, Bo Yanmin, was also a bit of a surprise medallist here as she had not dipped under 1:30 limit since that 2005 National Games race. But like so many times in China former greats want to perform well and Bo finished in 1:29:17 season’s best and third place.
Pole Vault shocks
In the women’s Pole Vault competition there was a big shock before the deciding heights were contested as 29-year-old Gao Shuying, the Asian record holder at 4.64m, could not manage to clear 4.30 in the competition and finished in a disappointing equal sixth place with a lowly 4.15. Gao had also failed in 2005 as she could only get third place then with 4.30 although she had cleared a Asian record 4.53 just a month earlier.
With the Chinese number one vaulter out of the way, five athletes went on to clear 4.30. The next upset was that 20-year-old Li Ling was not able to clear 4.40, a height which she made in Berlin World Championships qualification for a season’s best.
Only Li Caixia, equalling her personal best, and Wu Sha, setting a new personal best, managed to clear 4.40 and both with their second attempts. With both athletes having no other failures they went to 4.50 leading the competition together.
However, neither Li or Wu were near clearing 4.50 and with the same record score card they had to continue the competition to find the winner via a jump-off. The extra tries at 4.50 were even worse and now both athletes seemed to be getting really tired. Further tries at 4.45 and 4.40 were also not very close but while Li Caixia failed at 4.35 as well, Wu Sha was finally able to find the strength to clear and win the title in her second National Games. Winning the first gold of the Games in athletics for Anhui province, Wu was really emotional after her decisive jump with tears all over her face.
It is worth taking a few moments to review the very different directions from which these two promising vaulters had progressed to their 4.40 personal bests.
Both athletes born in 1987, Wu had already cleared a 4.30 national youth record in August 2003 despite being only 15-years-old at the time. But Wu did not better that result before tonight finally equalling the 4.30 PB she had set in 2007 and 2008 and also in June 2009.
By contrast the 22-year-old Li Caixia only started to compete in Pole Vault in 2005 clearing 3.60 indoors during that season. Li cleared 4 metres for the first time only two years ago in August 2007 ending that season with a 4.15 personal best, height which she could only equal in 2008. The 2009 season didn’t promise much more as she vaulted 4.15 indoors and then could only reach 4.00 in four successive competitions during the summer, but that all changed in the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix as she added 40cm to her outdoor season’s best and 25cm to personal best to clear 4.40 PB there, and in Jinan reached the same height once more.
8000pts a possibility
In the Decathlon competition 26-year-old national record holder Qi Haifeng is going for a record third successive title. Qi, who has been hampered by injuries since setting an 8290 points national record in Götzis 2005, still has a possibility to break 8000 points in the competition for the first time in four years. He has scored 6546 points after eight events for the lead on Sunday (25).
23-year-old Yu Bin was challenging Qi for the first seven events and also has a shot at 8000 points, but the Sichuan athlete Yu failed badly in the Pole Vault reaching only 4.20m, 50 centimetres less than his personal best and has 6427 for the second place.
Zhu Hengjun is going for about 7700 at the moment, well over his personal best 7541 from 2007, having scored 6404 to hold third place at the moment. On the basis that these athletes get a result in the Javelin Throw, the medals have already been decided as the next athlete is almost 200 points behind Zhu.
Sprint hurdles favourites through with ease
In the men’s 110m Hurdles heats all the favourites went easily through. Ji Wei was the fastest winning the third heat in 13.70sec followed by Liu Xiang’s 13.75. Other heat winners were 19-year-old Xie Wenjun who clocked 13.79 and Shi Dongpeng who won the first heat in 13.84. Liu will be looking for his third successive title which would give him most titles in this event.
Other qualification rounds…
In the men’s 400m hurdles medal favourites had no problems either. The reigning champion Meng Yan won his heat in 50.90sec with Li Guangjin winning heat two in the fastest clocking of 50.46, a season’s best. The 2005 runner-up Zhang Shibao also qualified easily with a season’s best 50.75, his fastest time in more than three years.
The men’s 200m semi-finals were run early on the fifth day, Sunday (25). The first semi-final was the fastest with three athletes dipping under 21 seconds. Li Mingxuan won in 20.81sec followed by Huang Wei (20.82) and Zhang Feng (20.95), all personal bests. Hu Kai who was competing in his last National Games could not qualify for the final finishing in sixth place in 21.36 and the reigning champion from 2005, co-national record holder at 20.54, Yang Yaozu, was trying to complete a comeback following injuries, but could not make it clocking only 21.64 for eighth place.
In the second semi-final the youth athlete Huang Xiang who was fifth in this summer’s World Youth Championships 100m final, had set a 21.03 personal best in the heats on Saturday, qualified easily winning the second semi-final in 21.09. Medal favourites Li Xianglong (21.11) and Wang Chengliang (21.19) also went straight to the final.
In the women’s 200m heats the medal trio from the 100m final each won their respective heats. 100m winner Wang Jing took the first heat in 23.71 season’s best. Jiang Lan was fastest in heat two in 23.73 and Chen Jue set a season’s best 23.68 winning the third and last heat being the fastest in the heats.
In the 800m heats reigning champion Li Xiangyu was fastest in 1:50.35.
In the women’s 800m heats the two best picks for a win, Li Yong, who was second in the 1500m and Liu Qing, a double winner in 800/1500m in and fifth in 1500m in these Games, were running in the same heat. Li won in 2:05.04 personal best with Liu clocking 2:05.32 and both of them qualified for the final.
Furthermore on Sunday morning (25) reigning National Games champion from 2005, Li Yanxi, easily topped the men’s Triple Jump qualification. Li, who was sixth in Berlin coming quite close to a medal at the World Championships, went well over the 16.50m automatic qualifying mark jumping 17.12m despite a strong headwind. Another favourite, 18-year-old Cao Shuo, also from Hebei like Li, went to the final with 16.73. Li jumped 17.13 in May winning the National Championships, the best ever result in the world by a 17-year-old.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
Click here for RESULTS
