Zhang Wenxiu celebrates her win at the Asian Games (© Getty Images)
up for the first of the three days World Championships Trials in city of Suzhou, Jiangsu province in China. Warm weather with temperatures at around 30 degrees Celsius welcomed the athletes to try to gain a place on the Osaka team.
Only a handful of athletes will get a place on the team without competing in these trials. These include naturally 110m Hurldles World record holder Liu Xiang, who is competing at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, USA, on Sunday and pole vaulter Gao Shuying, who recently set the Asian record 4.64m in New York. Some other top names like male sprinters Yang Yaozu and Hu Kai are missing because of injuries. 10,000m reigning Olympic champion Xing Huina is also not running - she will have to run a qualifying time before Osaka as she doesn’t even have the B-standard yet at 5000m or 10,000m yet.
Asian champion Zhang throws 74.30
The main news of day one was another Asian Hammer Throw record by 21-year-old Zhang Wenxiu. Zhang, who placed fifth at the 2005 World Champs, bettered her old record 74.15m set at the Doha Asian Games last December by 15cm to 74.30m. Zhang won with a huge margin of almost five metres ahead of Liu Yinghui, who set a season’s best for second place at 69.56m.
But it was very good news for Liu, who set her personal best 72.51m in 2005 while placing second at the World University Games. Her mark is her best since October 2005 and is 6cm better than the Osaka A-standard so she booked a place for Osaka as well. 2006 World Junior Champioships bronze medallist Hao Shuai placed third with 67.20m.
Li Ling takes Shot Put title
The women’s Shot Put was the other high quality women’s throwing event final of the day. 16-year-old Gong Lijiao will still have to wait to win her first senior title, but second place with a 18.32m toss is not bad news for the youngster, who will surely be a strong contender at the World Youth Championships in Ostrava later this summer, should she take part.
The winner of the day was 22-year-old Li Ling with a season’s best 18.81m. Li is looking to book her regular place at the top of the Shot Put world; in 2006 she set a personal best 19.05m placing fifth at the World Cup. Former Chinese number one putter Li Meiju was third with 18.29m and another junior Liu Xiangrong was fourth at 17.91m.
18-year-old Bai Xue unexpected 5000m winner
In the women’s 5000m the main favourites were upset with Xing Huina missing from the race, other stars were not able to make the best of the opportunity for an easier win.
17-year-old Xue Fei, the winner of the 2006 World Junior Championships 5000m, could not even finish the race and world leading marathon runner Zhou Chunxiu could only manage to finish 12th with a time of 16:08.96.
18-year-old Bai Xue, who finished a disappointing fourth at the World Junior Champs 5000m final sprint, had learned her lesson and this time it was she who emerged as the winner from the sprint. Bai cut the finish line in a personal best time 15:26.72, exactly the same time was given for Zhu Xiaolin who was second. Zhu is also the national marathon champion from this season. 17-year-old Zhang Yingying set a personal best 15:26.88 finishing just inches behind the top two. Zhang was born in 1990 and can take part to the World Youth Champs in Ostrava.
The 100m races were not top quality today. With two best names missing from the men’s race totally unknown Lu Bin, 20, took the title with a big personal best 10.34. Lu came to the race only with a PB 10.52, which he bettered in the heats with 10.50. Wen Yongyi finished a disappointing fifth in 10.56. Although he recently ran 10.37, he seems to have lost some momentum after his 6.59 national indoor record in March.
Tao Yujia grabbed the women’s 100m title in 11.65 and Chen Yaling won the Long Jump with 6.59m mark. Sun Yong was the fastest in the men’s 1500m in 3:49.87 and Zhang Renbo won the 5000m in 14:17.55.
The men’s Pole Vault was won by national record holder Liu Feiliang with a season’s best 5.45m. 2006 World Junior Champs silver medallist Yang Yansheng was second with 5.30m, the same result as Yang Quan who placed third. 20-year-old Yang set the national indoor record 5.61m this winter and is the only Chinese who has achieved the B-standard in this event.
Ma Liang won the men’s hammer final with a personal best 71.67m bettering his four-year-old PB. 20-year-old Wan Yong has already added 6m to his PB this season, now he took the second place with 70.20m PB mark. Zhao Yihai was third with 69.70m and visiting Korean Lee Yun-Chul fourth at 68.42. 18-year-old Dan Zhangcheng set a personal best 67.23m for fifth place missing the national junior record with the 7.26kg implement by just over a metre.
In the 110m Hurdles Shi Dongpeng easily qualified as fastest runner with a 13.68 clocking in his heat. Shi has already lowered his 110m Hurdles personal best down to 13.24 at the Osaka Grand Prix in May.
Mirko Jalava
