Spectacular opening ceremony of the 11th National Games of China at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Jinan, in eastern Shandong province - Friday 16 October (© AFP / Getty Images)
The 11th National Games of China started on Wednesday morning (21) at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Jinan, in eastern Shandong province, China. The stadium with a capacity of 60,000 seats plays host to the athletics part of the prestigious National Games, the most important sporting event in China.
The national games as a whole had opened last Friday (16) with a spectacular opening ceremony which did its level best to match the grandeur of an Olympic opening.
The athletics events of the 2009 edition of the National Games, which is held every four years, features all China’s stars including former Olympic and World champion in 110m Hurdles, Liu Xiang and Berlin medallists Gong Lijiao (women’s Shot Put) and Bai Xue, the marathon World champion, who already notched her first gold in last weekend in Beijing at the International Marathon which doubled as the National Games marathon title race.
The first morning (21) already featured the first track final, the men’s 10,000m. The weather was perfect was distance running at around 17-18 degrees Celsius with the race starting at 9.20am. Following a fast 63 second first lap the early pace only promised a 29-minute finishing time. After about 3000m there was a significant acceleration and Gansu runner Wang Yang lead the group of 10 men to 5000m in 14:09.17, two seconds faster than his 5000m personal best and promising a much faster race than the first kilometres.
The pace was now quite steady with Zhang Zhongji trying to make a move after 6200m, but that didn’t result in anything as there where still eight men in the leading group when they reached 7000m in 19:56 with the pace slowing down a bit. At this stage the reigning champion from 2005, Chen Mingfu, athlete from the home Shandong province, and National Games marathon winner three ago from Beijing, Han Gang, had already dropped out of the race. After the 7km the race turned out to be a tactical one. At least four different athletes went to the lead during the next two kilometres sprinting and then slowing down on several occasions. The next 1000m split was much slower with 2:56 from 7-8km and then a little faster 2:50 from 8-9km, but with very uneven running.
The real move in the race was made with exactly 1000m to go with 22-year-old Qinghai runner Dong Guojian stepping the pace up considerably. With Lu Hanxiong and Yang Dinghong following closely, showing for the first time was 19-year-old Tian Mengxu, from Henan province, who took fourth spot in this four man group which was running away from the others.
The final kilometre was just one big sprint with all four reaching the bell next to each other. Lu was the first one to be dropped with Yang taking the lead with 200 metres to go. Yang and Dong were side by side with Tian seemingly beat at the start of the final straight before the youngster’s huge final sprint as he passed the duo from the inside to win comfortably in a National Games record 28:15.06 surpassing Chen Yingfu’s 28:16.40 from 2005 and clocking an unbelievable 2:32.79 last 1000m almost reaching the final km by World champion Kenenisa Bekele in Berlin earlier this summer.
This was the best ever 10,000m in China surpassing the 1997 National Games contest where five athletes went under 28:30. In a race where the first six athlete set a personal best Tian missed the national record (28:08.67) by less than seven seconds despite the changes in pace during the second half of the race to take the third spot in the Chinese alltime list. Dong Guojian finished in second place in 28:17.60 with Yang Dinghong clocking 28:19.08. Lu Hanxiong was timed 28:21.66 and 19-year-old junior Li Zicheng 28:22.87 missing the national junior record by just more than four seconds.
The other final of the morning was men’s Hammer Throw where the only favourite, the Chinese all-time number two Ma Liang, took the win, but by a much smaller margin than expected. Ma led from the first round reaching his best 71.01m with his first try, but others got really close during the last round. First Wan Yong, who was fifth before his last throw set a personal best of 70.42m to take the silver medal position in round six and then Qi Dakai immediately answered with a 70.77m toss taking him to second place. But Zhao Yihai, who was second before the last round was able to produce a season’s best 70.66m to take the bronze before Ma fouled his last throw.
In the men’s Long Jump qualification there were no surprises with all of the favourites reaching the final. Li Jinzhe, the best jumper in China this season, topped the qualification with a 7.90m automatic qualifier and Zhang Xiaoyi jumped a season’s best 7.88m also above the automatic 7.85m limit. Yu Zhenwei and Li Runrun (SB) both jumped 7.86m.
In the 400m heats favourites went easily to the final. In the men’s side Liu Xiaosheng was fastest in 46.73s and 2005 National Games double winner in 400m/400m hurdles, Huang Xiaoxiao who has recently returned from an injury which made her miss the Beijing Olympics, was at ease winning her heat in slow 54.37s with 18-year-old Chen Lin recording the fastest time of the heats, 53.42s, winning another heat.
There will be four more finals on Wednesday evening, men’s 3000m Steeplechase, women’s 5000m and two women’s throws, Hammer Throw and shot put.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
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