Huina Xing of China - 10,000m gold medallist (© Getty Images)
There has been much euphoria in China following the Athens Olympics concerning the World record equalling performance of the 21 year-old Liu Xiang. The ‘clean-cut, boy next-door’ image of the Shanghai born sprint hurdler immediately propelled the Olympic 110m Hurdles champion to super-star status in his country.
Far from unknown
Yet Liu Xiang’s victory on the evening of 27 August was one of two Chinese Olympic gold medals in the track and field events of that day, as less than 20 minutes later the gun fired for the start of the women’s 10,000m, a final which was to end in the crowning of Xing Huina as champion.
“It's a surprise of all the surprises," Xing Huina said after the race. "I never expected that it could happen.”
The World Junior 10,000m record holder with a time of 30:31.55 which she had established when finishing seventh behind Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, was by no means an unknown prior to Athens.
Yet the 20 year-old’s Olympic victory in a personal best of 30:24.36 was much more of a surprise than that of Liu Xiang who was the 2003 World 110m Hurdles bronze medallist, and had also reached the podium in two World Indoor Championships.
Junxia was an inspiration
Inspired by the most famous of all Chinese distance runners, Wang Junxia the 1996 Olympic 5000m winner and 10,000m silver medallist, Xing Huina had planned to strike gold on home soil in Beijing in 2008 but “got there four years earlier” as she explained. "Wang is my idol. I heard her name when I was a child.”
Yet in Athens, Xing Huina was specifically motivated for the 10,000m by her disappointment at 'only' finishing ninth in the 5000m final (15:07.41), having set a personal best of 14:56.01 in the First Round.
”I felt devastated after the 5000m because I was stronger in that event and the 10,000m is always my weak point,” she said with sincerity. Some weak point, her opponents must now be thinking.
And four years later in Beijing?
”I hope to do better,’ which presumably must mean the 5000m and 10,000m double which her idol Wang came so close to in Atlanta. Significantly, Wang Junxia was 24 years-old in 1996 and so will be Xing Huina in 2008.
Financial motivation too
Yet if Xing Huina or for that matter Liu Xiang’s motivation dips in the next four years, there is another incentive that their vast economically awakening nation can offer its medal hopes. As Communist China steadily gears up to host the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, financial rewards are now on the table.
For the stars of Athens, the central government promised prizes of up to 200,000 Yuan (US$24,000) for Olympic medallists, and individual provinces have also paid 'gifts' on the team’s return from Greece.
Already, Liu Xiang is the focus of running shoe advertisements, and the People's Daily has confirmed that he is set to collect 3,500,000 Yuan (US$400,000) just in government prizes, while his commercial earnings could be several times that amount.
If we take as example the fortunes of basketball player Yao Ming, who led the Chinese national team to a silver medal in the 2002 Asian Games, and then signed a four-year contract with Houston in the USA which was worth $17.8 million, then the future looks very bright for China’s two new Athletics stars.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
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