China's Xue Fei wins the women's 5000m at the Asian Games (© Getty Images)
All eyes of the athletics world will of course be on China during the 2008 season because of the Olympics. But what are the prospects of the home team?
When Beijing was awarded the Games in 2001, there will still time to build and educate a strong athletics team, but then…really not much happened. China did get two surprise gold medals from the Athens Games in 2004, but after that only Liu Xiang has had a realistic chance of winning a major championships, and indeed he has got a gold and a silver from the last two World Championships with the additional World record as well
China, who got three medals, one of each, from the Osaka World Championships, will not challenge USA for the top spot on the medal table, but might just do a little bit better than what most people are expecting thanks to a mass of great young talent.
Did you know for instance that already now in the women’s events China has four athletes qualified for 5000m and five for 10,000m!
OVERALL - Osaka medallists lead the podium chase
Naturally the 110m Hurdles World record holder and reigning Olympic and World Champion Liu Xiang is the number one pick for a Chinese medal. In the same event there is another possible medallist as well. 23-year-old Shi Dongpeng has progressed well behind Liu Xiang and took the 5th place in Osaka with a personal best 13.19.
Zhou Chunxiu, the London Marathon winner, who got the silver in Osaka, will lead a strong marathon team. Zhu Xiaolin was fourth in Osaka and Wei Yanan, who has run 2:23:12 in 2007, could be a contender as well.
Asian Hammer Throw record holder Zhang Wenxiu was very close to the gold in Osaka finally getting the bronze medal. 21-year-old Zhang, who raised her best to 74.86m, will not however be joined by any other Chinese in the medal chase in this event as they failed to reach 70m this season.
MEN
For the rest of the men’s running events there is not much to tell. In addition to the 110m Hurdles, only the marathon might have an outside (way out) chance for a Chinese medal. Ren Longyun ran the fastest time for a 20-year-old in Beijing in October clocking a 2:08:15 national record and Han Gang also dipped under 2:09 in 2:08:56.
Jumping events
China has some young talents in the men’s jumping events, but a medal in next year’s Olympics in really far fetched idea. In August 2006 it seemed Huang Haiqiang might be able to be ready in two years, but the World Junior High Jump champion, with a 2.32m PB then, has not progressed as expected and can hardly enter the final in Beijing. For the World Youth champion, Wang Chen, this competition comes too early. Wang will only be 18-years-old next summer and has a best of 2.22m from this season.
In the Pole Vault the Chinese have two athletes you could make it to the final, but not the medals. Liu Feiliang only very narrowly lost out on a place in the final in Osaka and 19-year-old Yang Yansheng has jumped 5.60m this season.
In the Long Jump, Zhou Can and Li Runrun jumped 8.22m this season and 18-year-old Zhang Xiaoyi produced 8.09m, but a place in the final is all these three can realistically expect from Beijing.
The Triple Jump is possibly the strongest of the jumping events. Osaka finalist Zhong Minwei set a personal best 17.27m this season and is only 20-years-old. With a perfect 2008 season Zhong might get close to the medals. Also Gu Junjie, Wu Bo, Zhu Shujing and Li Yanxi are all names to keep in mind in this event.
Throwing events
There aren’t really any athletes close to the medal or even a place in final at the moment in China. 24-year-old Qi Haifeng was 7th at the 2003 World Championships and was expected to be a gold medal candidate in Beijing, but because of too many injuries it will not happen.
Race Walking
Any walker from China entering the Olympics in 2008 will be a medal contender, expect nothing less. The men’s walkers will be led by youth star Li Gaobo, who will be only 19 next year, but has already spent the last three seasons as a world class walker. Li Gaobo was 13th in Osaka 20km, his first major championships.
Han Yucheng has competed in many major competitions since the 2004 Olympics, but is yet to score a good performance in Olympics or World Championships. However, he has got a 3rd place from the 2006 World Cup 20km and 4th place in the same competition in 2004. Zhao Chengliang and Yu Chaohong will lead the 50km hopefuls. Zhao was 5th in Helsinki 2005, but was disqualified in Osaka and has a 3:36:13 personal best.
Yu was also disqualified in Osaka, but was 4th at the 2004 Olympics and 2nd at the 2004 World Cup and has a best of 3:36:06, the Asian record. Another name to note is Sun Chao, only 20 years old, he was 7th in Osaka.
WOMEN
Running events
Although no athlete has qualified for China in 800m or 1500m, the number one runner Liu Qing might be competing there. She showed some better running in late 2007 season.
5000m and 10000m are very tricky for any international expert to predict. Certainly things have changed since the City Games were held in October/November 2007. China now has four athletes qualified for 5000m and five for 10000m. And surely they will field as many as they can for their own Olympics. All of these athletes are young, the oldest 20-years-old. That might prevent them from doing well according to some experts, but they could be proven wrong. Any Chinese athlete who has competed in their National or City Games already has major championships experience. They know how to run fast without a pacemaker and still end up with a sprint finish with several runners competing for the win.
Naturally the winners of the City Games 5000m and 10,000m will be the ones who could do something in Beijing. Xue Fei, who will turn 19 just before the Olympics, is the most experienced of the lot. Xue, who won the 5000m in a personal best 15:02.73 in Wuhan City Games, has already won this event at the World Junior Championships and Asian Games as well. 10,000m winner Zhang Yingying will only be 18-years-old next summer, but that should not be a problem. She bests of 15:06.08 in 5000m, 31:17.30 in 10,000m and 2:27:20 in the Marathon.
And of course we still have the reigning Olympic champion in the 10,000m, Xing Huina, and Sun Yingjie, who is again free to compete following her drug ban, fighting for the places in the Olympic team with these young athletes.
The most important thing to realise is that none of these athletes who have already qualified, need to run fast again before the Olympics. This could create an impression in 2008 that the Chinese women runners are not going to do anything special at the Olympics, but that might not be the whole truth. In 2004 Xing Huina had only run a 32:48.28 10,000m prior to the Olympics where she won the gold in 30:24.36!!!!
We have already mentioned Zhou Chunxiu, the winner of this year's London Marathon (2:20:28) but in total China has eight women who have run the marathon below 2:30 this year alone.
China has three athletes qualified for the women’s Steeplechase as well, but for some reason it seems that these Chinese steeplechasers are not doing too well in international competition yet. Liu Nian is the best Chinese with Asian record 9:26.25, 8th fastest in the world in 2007.
Having taken the fifth place in the last two World Championships, Huang Xiaoxiao will surely be looking for a medal at the Beijing 400m Hurdles final. Huang lowered her personal best down to 54.00s in Osaka and is not really that far away from a medal.
Jumping events
In the women’s High Jump Zheng Xingjuan has been the young talent for many years, but the 18-year-old has not progressed for some time. Following her 1.92m PB in 2005 and 2006 she managed that same height indoors in 2007, but could only clear 1.88m outdoors.
In the Pole Vault, Gao Shuying has been close to the top of the world for a long time now. 28-year-old Gao Shuying has already competed in four World Championships getting 5th place twice. In Osaka she was narrowly left out of the final and despite the fact that she raised the Asian record to 4.64m in 2007, she can hardly be thought to be on the medal podium in Beijing.
In the Triple Jump, Xie Limei is the lone Chinese jumper looking for a place in the final. The 21-year-old has progressed well and finished her season setting her second Asian record of the 2007 season with a 14.90m jump in late September. Xie was 8th in Osaka and with a little bit of improvement she can have a shot at the medals.
Throwing events
Women’s Shot Put is obviously the best of the throwing/putting events. Three Chinese athletes finished in the top eight of the Osaka World Championships with Li Ling just missing a medal in fourth place.
Li Ling threw a personal best 19.38m in the Osaka final and the young talent Gong Lijiao, who was 7th in Osaka, and Li Meiju (6th in Osaka) reached 19 metres this season and will be medal contenders in Beijing. Gong Lijiao will only be 19-years-old in 2008 and it will be really interesting to see her early 2008 form. The junior beat 19 metres indoors and outdoors this season and is the best junior in the world since 1994 with her 19.13m personal best in 2007. 19-year-old Liu Xiangrong might be another athlete with hopes to reach for a place on the Olympic team, she beat Gong at the City Games with a personal best of 18.58m.
Sun Taifeng was the best Chinese in the Osaka Discus Throw final and only missed a medal by 68cm there. Ma Xuejun, double World Junior champion in 2002/2004, was 9th in Osaka and has a best of 65.00m and will be another Chinese on the medal chase. Other hopeful Chinese include Song Aimin, Li Yanfeng and Xu Shaoyang.
In the Javelin Throw, China doesn’t have a medal candidate for Beijing. 19-year-old Chang Chunfeng was the only Chinese to reach 60m this season and she faded well under this limit at the end of the 2007 season.
Race Walking
In the women’s 20km, China has lots of talent. Song Hongjuan, 24-years-old next summer, is probably the best pick to fight for the gold medal. The Chinese women have underachieved in the latest World Championships and Olympics, but that might change in Beijing. The young team might also see Jiang Jing, Bai Yanmin or Liu Hong competing.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
Chinese athletes already qualified for 2008 Olympics
Athlete / year of birth / performance
MEN
100m
B (10.28)
Zhang Peimeng 87 10.27
Wen Yongyi 87 10.28
200m
B (20.75)
Zhang Peimeng 87 20.74
400m
B (45.95)
Liu Xiaosheng 88 45.79
Wang Liangyu 84 45.95
800m
B (1:47.00)
Li Xiangyu 85 1:46.67
10,000m
B (28:10.00)
Ren Longyun 87 28:08.67
Marathon
A (2:15:00)
Ren Longyun 87 2:08:15
Han Gang 78 2:08.56
Li Zhuhong 83 2:13:17
Chen Guoqiang 84 2:14:39
Su Wei 82 2:14:53
110m Hurdles
A (13.55)
Liu Xiang 83 12.92
Shi Dongpeng 84 13.19
Ji Wei 84 13.40
Xing Yanan 83 13.54
400m Hurdles
B (49.50)
Meng Yan 80 49.47
High Jump
A (2.30)
Huang Haiqiang 88 2.30
Pole Vault
A (5.70)
Liu Feiliang 85 5.71
Long Jump
A (8.20)
Zhou Can 79 8.22
Li Runrun 83 8.22
Triple Jump
A (17.10)
Zhong Minwei 87 17.27
Gu Junjie 85 17.11
Javelin Throw
B (77.80)
Qin Qiang 83 80.21
Chen Qi 82 78.07
Decathlon
B (7700)
Yu Bin 85 7824
20km Race Walk
A (1:23:00)
Li Gaobo 89 1:19:03
Han Yucheng 78 1:19:15
Wang Zhiping 86 1:20:05 (-06)
Lu Ronghua 83 1:20:16
Wei Yang 89 1:21:26
Zeng Guoqiang 84 1:21:36
Dong Jimin 85 1:22:06
Zou Cuizhi 83 1:22:39 (-06)
50km Race Walk
A (4:00:00)
Zhao Chengliang 84 3:44:26
Yu Chaohong 76 3:49:27 (3:43:58 -06)
Sun Chao 87 3:50:46
Li Jianbo 86 3:53:24
Xing Shucai 84 3:54:19 (3:45:52 -06)
Zou Cuizhi 83 3:54:42
Zhao Jianguo 88 3:55:05
Alatan Gadasu 84 3:55:35 (3:49:36 -06)
Xu Faguang 87 3:55:45
Guan Weilong 85 3:56:11
Hou Yang 85 3:56:43
Si Tianfeng 84 3:58:27 (3:52:06 -06)
Ni Liang 3:59:37 (-06)
Zhang Ronglong 84 3:59:58
WOMEN
5000m
A (15:09.00)
Xue Fei 89 15:02.73
Xie Fang 89 15:03.95
Zhang Yingying 90 15:06.08
He Pan 88 15:08.03
10,000m
A (31:45.00)
Zhang Yingying 90 31:17.30
Xie Fang 89 31:21.25
Chen Huirong 88 31:23.07
Bai Xue 88 31:32.49
Song Xiaoxue 87 31:39.84
Marathon
A (2:37:00)
Zhou Chunxiu 78 2:20:38
Wei Yanan 81 2:23:12
Zhu Xiaolin 84 2:26:08
Chen Rong 88 2:27:05
Zhang Yingying 90 2:27:20
Bai Xue 88 2:27:46
Zhu Yingying 88 2:28:47
Sun Weiwei 85 2:29:27
Zhang Shujing 78 2:31:14
Zhang Xin 89 2:31:29
Yang Fengxia 89 2:33:11
Zheng Wenrong 88 2:33:29 (-06)
Xu Si 87 2:34:48 (-06)
Qie Liping 87 2:34:56 (-06)
Fang Guangxia 2:35:00
Zeng Guang 86 2:35:18
Dai Yanyan 80 2:35:34 (2:35:03 -06)
Wang Linan 85 2:35:45
Shawuti Nuerguli 83 2:36:04 (-06)
Wang Xiaoshu 86 2:36:06 (-06)
Jin Min 84 2:36:30
3000m Steeplechase
A (9:46.00)
Liu Nian 88 9:26.25
Li Zhenzhu 85 9:32.35
Zhu Yanmei 86 9:32.36
400m Hurdles
A (55.60)
Huang Xiaoxiao 83 54.00
Pole Vault
A (4.45)
Gao Shuying 79 4.64
Zhang Yingning 4.46i
Triple Jump
A (14.20)
Xie Limei 86 14.90
Shot Put
A (18.35)
Li Ling 85 19.38
Gong Lijiao 89 19.13
Li Meiju 79 19.09
Liu Xiangrong 88 18.58
Discus Throw
A (61.00)
Sun Taifeng 82 64.98
Song Aimin 78 62.64
Ma Xuejin 85 62.57
Li Yanfeng 79 62.24
Xu Shaoyang 83 61.30
Hammer Throw
A (69.50)
Zhang Wenxiu 86 74.86
Liu Yinghui 79 69.56
Javelin Throw
A (60.50)
Chang Chunfeng 88 61.61
20km Race Walk (1:33:30)
Song Hongjuan 84 1:28:25
Liu Hong 87 1:29:41
Jiang Jing 85 1:29:45 (1:28:55 -06)
Bai Yanmin 87 1:30:12
Jiang Qiuyan 83 1:30:27
Shi Na 81 1:30:58
Chai Xue 88 1:32:07 (-06)
Yang Sha 86 1:32:12
Sun Limin 87 1:33:01
Han Jie 87 1:33:08
