Liu Xiang of China wins the 110m Hurdles at the Prefontaine GP (© Kirby Lee)
While being interviewed in the USA before coming back to China, Olympic High Hurdles champion Liu Xiang said he would not participate in the National Championships held in 19-21 June in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, because of his preparations for the TDK Golden League and European Grand Prix season, and the World Championships.
Crowd puller
But giving a big and welcome surprise to the local organisers and people coming to watch the meeting in the Shijiazhuang stadium, Liu Xiang’s participation in the 110m Hurdles heats on Sunday evening, which was confirmed on Saturday, gave the organisers a massive booast, with more people in the stands and watching the championships on TV as well.
Liu Xiang’s heat was even transmitted live on the internet - in the competition itself he was faithful to his usual style in Chinese competitions, winning his heat wearing only a casual looking grey t-shirt in 14.10 into a 1.7 m/s headwind.
The second best Chinese hurdler also won his heat as well, Shi Dongpeng clocked 14.13 with Wang Hui, the winner of the third heat being the fastest with 13.99 into the strongest headwind of 2.2 m/s.
Many top names absent because of the competition system
Although this meeting serves as the men's National Championships for 2005, the Chinese prefer to call it "the qualifying meeting for the 10th National Games", because the top 16 athletes from this competition will gain an automatic place in the National Games which will be held in Nanjing in October.
But because the places are given to best athletes even without attending this meeting, many of the top names were absent from the first day of competition with some of them competing in the Asian Grand Prix in Sidoarjo, Indonesia, and some even in the United States. This is because the top scoring athletes in the National Grand Prix series get their place in Nanjing automatically and also those who finished in the top eight in Athens Olympics last season.
Missing from the men's Hurdles heats were Wu Youjia, who won the Sidoarjo meeting with a personal best of 13.55, and Liu Lilu. Also the best shot putter Zhang Qi and Javelin thrower Li Rongxiang, both in Sidoarjo, did not start their events in Shijiazhuang.
Promising 100m sprinting
The first day of the competition at the national championships was held in warm conditions with the temperature around 30 C and over. Because of the hot weather, the gap between morning and evening sessions was quite similar to that of Athens Olympic timetable in 2004, giving the coolest possible weather to the competition. Only the strong headwind stood in between Hu Kai and the national 100m record of 10.17 with Hu winning the competition with a personal best of 10.27 into a 0.8 headwind. Jin Ke was second in 10.29. He won his semifinal in a fast personal best of 10.23.
Good quality Shot Put
In the absence of Zhang Qi, who has already several times threatened the standing national record of 19.78m during this season, it was now Jia Peng who recorded a big personal best of 19.49m. 21-year-old Jia grabbed his second straight National title, his earlier personal best of 19.33m was from the 2004 Champs. Four best finishers in the competition set personal bests with Tian Yingchun finishing in second place with his first career 19m throw of 19.13m. Tian also repeated his finish from last season, he was second in 2004 too at 18.99m. Zhang Heng was third with 18.72m and Yibulayin Abudula fourth with 18.39m.
Surprise in the Hammer
Ma Liang, the best Chinese Hammer thrower during the past couple of seasons was defeated for the first time in 2005 after having comfortably won his first two competitions during this season. 19-year-old Zhao Yihai took the win with a big personal best of 69.94m. Before this season his best was only 64.44m in 2004, although he did set the national junior record of 72.81m with the 6kg hammer during last season, while winning the Asian junior championships. Liu Fuxiang took the second place with a season's best of 68.32m with Ma Liang finishing third with a throw of 67.72m.
Zhang Yunshan takes the 5000m title
Men's 5000m final was conducted in two heats with the second one being the faster one. The race favourite, 18-year-old Lin Xiangqian suffered his first loss over the 5000m distance during 2005. He finished second in the race in 14:02.90, well behind Zhang Yunshan who won the national title in 13:57.80.
Qi Haifeng leads the Decathlon
In the Decathlon competition, Qi Haifeng is taking it easy following his 8290 points national record in Götzis three weeks ago. He was a little behind his NR-series in all events and is 106 points behind his first day total, but still on way to another 8000 point Decathlon. Hong Qingyang, who has scored 4000 points for the second place after day one, is almost 200 points ahead of his four-year-old personal best of 7463 which he recorded in the 2001 National Games, but has a lot weaker second day than Qi and can't really challenge the Chinese number one decathlete for the win.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
Top results - First Day
100 m (-0.8): Hu Kai 10.27; 2 Jin Ke 10.29; 3 Liu Dapeng 10.46.
semifinals, s1 (-0.9): Hu Kai 10.32, s2 (+1.6): Jin Ke 10.23; 2 Shen Yunbao 10.37.
Heats, h4 (-0.3): Jin Ke 10.35.
400m, semifinals, s1: Wang Xiaoxu 46.82, s2: Wang Liangyu 46.36; 2 Li Peng 46.64; 3 He Maolong 46.74, s3: Wang Youxin 46.69; 2 Li Yipeng 46.85.
5000m, final, race 1: Chen Mingfu 14:06.76, race 2: Zhang Yunshan 13:57.80;
2 Lin Xiangqian (87) 14:02.90; 3 Qin Chuan 14:04.14; 4 Sun Wenyong 14:05.76.
110m Hurdles, heats, h1 (-2.2): Wang Hui 13.99, h2 (-1.7): Liu Xiang 14.10,
h3 (-1.0): Shi Dongpeng 14.13; 2 Xing Yanan 14.15.
Long Jump, qualification: Li Runrun 7.87/+0.7.
Shot Put: Jia Peng 19.49; 2 Tian Yingchun 19.13; 3 Zhang Heng 18.72; 4 Yibulayin Abudula 18.39.
Qualification: Zhang Jun 18.36; 2 Jia Peng 18.08; 3 Zhang Heng 18.02.
Hammer: Zhao Yihai 69.94; 2 Liu Fuxiang 68.32; 3 Ma Liang 67.72.
Javelin, qualification: Lin Dong 73.27.
Decathlon, after day one: Qi Haifeng 4092; 2 Hong Qingyang.
