Haiqiang Huang of China during the qualifying round of the men's High Jump (© Getty Images)
The Chinese National Championships for men, the qualification meet for the 11th National Games was held in city of Yulin in southern Guangxi province from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 May.
As usual in a National Games year the meet did not attract all of the best male athletes in China and others who did take part only did enough to secure a high enough finish to gain a start at the National Games in October.
The younger generation takes charge
Nevertheless there were plenty of good performances in these championships which were the best in China for several seasons. Young athletes have always been widely represented at top placings in China, but this meet marked a dramatic change in Chinese athletics with 1988 and 1989 born athletes grabbing most of the titles. Many top names from the previous years had to step aside as these two age groups took 9 of the 18 individual titles with 1987-born athletes grabbing all three distance races (5000/10,000m & 3000m Steeplechase).
The biggest news of the meet came during the final day, Sunday, in the final field event of the whole meet, the Triple Jump. 17-year-old Cao Shuo upset the whole field of top Chinese triple jumpers only missing Chinese number one, Olympic finalist Li Yanxi who did not compete here. Cao soared to 17.13m winning jump to become first 17-year-old to exceed 17 metres in triple jump surpassing Cuban Yoelbi Quesada’s previous mark of 16.98m from 1991 by 15cm.
Cao, who will only turn 18 in October, impressively won the Chinese Youth Championships in last November with a 16.42m jump, but took himself to another level on Sunday. The young Hebei province athlete who missed Gu Junjie’s Asian junior record by only 10cm, moves to 10th place on the World junior all-time list and to 8th place on the Chinese all-time list.
Reigning Chinese champion Wu Bo was second with 17.06m, his second best career jump and Jia Yingli third with a season’s best 16.61m result. Favourite Gu Junjie was a disappointing 8th with 15.96m and another big name Zhong Minwei was last, 23rd in qualification with a lowly 15.03m jump.
In the men’s sprints 19-year-old Su Bingtian took a big step forward winning the 100m final in a fast 10.28sec result despite difficult wind conditions. Hu Kai was second in a 10.37 season’s best and hurdler Xing Yanan, who could not finish his 110m Hurdles heat moments earlier, third in 10.38 personal best time.
In 200m 23-year-old Wang Chengliang won with a 20.80 sec personal best with Li Mingxuan tying his personal best 20.91 from last season for a second place finish. Former Chinese number one in this event, Yang Yaozu who co-holds the national record at 20.54 from 2006, was 6th in 21.37. Yang has been hampered by injuries ever since the 2006 season. In the 400m Liu Xiaosheng confirmed his place at the top of this event winning in 46.53s season’s best.
The middle distance and long distance races didn’t offer much results wise with all of the races rather slow. The best level in these races was in 3000m Steeplechase which was won by Lin Xiangqian in 8:40.24 before Yang Le’s 8:41.05 for the second place, both season’s best clockings.
In the 110m Hurdles 20-year-old Yin Jing, who has the fastest Chinese time this season at 13.40 sec, did not disappoint. Yin grabbed the title in 13.51 ahead of Shi Dongpeng’s 13.54s. 18-year-old junior Xie Wenjun was third in 13.65 season’s best time. Another favourite Ji Wei finished in disappointing 5th place in 13.82 despite his recent 13.51 clocking in Osaka last weekend.
In the 400m Hurdles 28-year-old national record holder (49.03s in 2006) Meng Yan took his 6th national title winning in 50.37sec.
Huang Haiqiang returns to form
21-year-old Huang Haiqiang, the 2006 World Junior and 2005 World Youth champion, won with a 2.24m clearance, his best result since the 2007 season. 2006 World Junior Championships silver medallist Yang Yansheng, also 21, won the Pole Vault with a 5.35m result.
In the Long Jump the favourites were beaten too with 19-year-old Li Jinzhe claiming the victory with his first career 8 metre jump of 8.08m. Li, who had a best of 7.85m from 2007 before this season set a personal best in the qualifying too with 7.96m.
In the final 20-year-old Yun Zhiming was second with a 7.98m PB and Zhuang Haitao third with the same result, 7.98m, also PB. 26-year-old Li Xin also set a personal best for fourth place with 7.93m and 26-year-old Cai Peng was fifth with a season’s best 7.93m, his best result since August 2004. In 2000 Cao won the World Junior Championships being only 17 years old at the time.
In the Shot Put 26-year-old Zhang Jun won with a 19.44m result, his second best career result behind his 19.49m personal best from this season. Ma Liang won the Hammer Throw with a 74.11m personal best before Qi Dakai’s 72.49m also a PB. 20-year-old Wang Qingbo won the Javelin Throw with a 77.69m season’s best and Qi Haifeng won his 8th national title in the Decathlon scoring a 7729 points total this time.
Chinese athletics season will continue with the women’s National Championships and National Games qualification meet next weekend 21-23 May in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
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