Huina Xing of China (© Getty Images)
The competitors during the second day of the women's National Championships and qualifying meeting for the 10th National Games again faced temperatures well over 30 degrees celsius.
Saturday (25) also confirmed what had been seen earlier, also in the men's championships earlier this week, that for some top names these national championships are just not important. The competition is just a way to get to the National Games and nothing else.
Because only a top-16 place finish is needed for entry to the October National Games, many top names decided to jog through their semifinals or just perform once in the field events finals.
Liu Qing defeats Olympic champion
Olympic 10,000m champion Xing Huina, who had already won the 5000m on Friday, was beaten in a finishing straight sprint by 19-year-old Liu Qing, who won in 4:16.37 before Xing's 4:16.52.
Liu is one of the most promising middle distance runners in China, she ran a personal best of 4:10.51 last season. On Sunday (26) she will be looking for a double here after easily entering the 800m semi-finals. Earlier this season she set a national indoor record of 2:02.90 in the 800m.
Zhao Yingying takes the Pole Vault easily
In the absence of Asian record holder Gao Shuying, 19-year-old Zhao Yingying took her second national title in three years jumping 4.30m for the third time outdoors this season. Last year she did not clear her opening height in the qualification of the national championships - earlier this season indoors she jumped a 4.45m Asian indoor record.
Xue Juan gets the world junior leader in javelin
World Junior record holder Xue Juan won the Javelin final with a throw of 59.72m, a season's best and a world leading mark for juniors this season. Ma Ning took the second place with 58.01m and 16-year-old Zhang Li set a personal best of 57.80m to take the third place. Zhang will be looking for a top finish in the World Youth Championships next month.
Feng Yun wins the sprint hurdles
29-year-old Feng Yun, one of the oldest top competitors in this meeting, won the national title in 12.99, just a little behind her season's best 12.92 which she ran in New York earlier this month. Last year's champion Su Yiping was now second in 13.06.
Tang Xiaoyin unchallenged in 400m
Top 400m in the country, 20-year-old Tang Xiaoyin, who has already recorded a personal best of 51.96 earlier this season, easily won the 400m final in 53.05, 0.9 seconds before Xie Qing clocking 53.95 for second place. Tang finished fourth in the last year's World Junior Championships in Grosseto.
Shen Shengfei wins another Heptathlon title
Shen Shengfei won the fourth straight national title in Heptathlon now scoring only 5834 points for the win. 24-year-old Shen, who is the reigning National Games champion from 2001 (with pb 6263p), was well below her best in a couple of events losing several hundred points. She will be unchallenged in the National Games and will be looking for a rare chance of finishing in top three for the third time in the row. In 1997, at the age of 16, she took the second place with 6185 points, still the best score by a youth athlete all-time.
Wang Lina's wins a low key Long Jump
The women's Long Jump, exactly like the men's event a few days earlier, showed the weird attitude by athletes towards the National Championships meeting because it's also the qualifying meeting for the National Games. The best long jumper in China, Guan Yingnan who has jumped 6.78m this season, was apparently more than happy just to get to the final, and because the top-16 get to the National Games, Guan decided not to try too hard finishing a distant 10th with 6.03m result, despite being the third best in the qualification yesterday. 22-year-old Wang Lina won the competition with 6.56m ahead of Huang Jianfen, who jumped 6.39m season's best for second place.
Promising qualifying performances
Two of the most interesting performances of Saturday were achieved in the qualifying rounds. Asian record holder in Triple Jump (14.72m in 2001), Huang Qiuyan, looks to be in the best form of her career. Huang, who was a finalist in the Olympic Games in Athens last year, easily qualified with a jump of 14.36m for the final, Sunday. Huang has been very consistent ever since her record jump in 2001, in 2002 she jumped 14.60m, 2003 14.39m, 2004 14.66m and has a best of 14.58m earlier this season.
Another athlete doing well in the heats was Huang Xiaoxiao, the best Chinese 400m hurdler, who also reached the semi-finals in the Athens Olympics. Huang gave a scare in yesterday's 400m flat heats finishing last in her heat in a slow time of 56.19, but today her pace was different. She won her 400m Hurdles heat with a faster time that she ran for the flat 400m a day earlier, 56.05! She will be looking to better her season's best in the final and will surely be part of the Chinese team in the Helsinki World Championships as well.
Chinese summer season concludes with the last day
The last day of the women's championships on Sunday will also mean a three-month break in the domestic athletics season in China. The next meeting will be the National Grand Prix final in Changchun 14-19 September, and the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, IAAF meeting in Shanghai on 17 September.
The National Games will be contested in Nanjing on 14-20 October, with the Marathon staged together with the Beijing International Marathon on 16 October.
The final day of these championships tomorrow (26 June) will see some interesting competitions, 16-year-old High Jump star Zheng Xingyuan, who has already set a national junior record of 1.92m earlier this season, will be looking for her first national title. Huang Qiuyan in the Triple Jump and Huang Xiaoxiao in the 400m Hurdles will be favourites in their events with several titles won already. Sun Yingjie will clash with a new star, Zhou Chunxiu, who is the fastest Chinese over 10,000m this season and has already run a 2:23:24 marathon this season.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
Results
400m: Tang Xiaoyin 53.05; 2 Xie Qing 53.95; 3 Zhang Xiaoyuan 54.14.
1500m: Liu Qing (86) 4:16.37; 2 Xing Huina 4:16.52; 3 Chen Zhenzhen 4:19.10.
100m Hurdles (+0.8): Feng Yun 12.99; 2 Su Yiping 13.06; 3 Liu Jing 13.20; 4 He Liyuan 13.31; 5 Zhang Rong 13.33; 6 Ji Fangqian 13.55.
400m Hurdles, heats, heat 1: Wang Xing (86) 57.80; 2 He Yu (86) 58.03, heat 2: Song Yinglan 58.03; 2 Li Yun 58.06; 3 Zhang Rongrong 58.06, heat 3: Huang Xiaoxiao 56.05; 2 Chen Lin 57.72; 3 Chen Yumei (88) 58.35.
Pole Vault: Zhao Yingying (86) 4.30; 2 Yu Shuo (88) 4.15; 3 Huang Yu 4.15; 4 Li Gaoqun (86) 4.00; 5 Sun Minna 4.00.
Long Jump: Wang Lina 6.56/0.0; 2 Huang Jianfen 6.39/+0.7; 3 Zhang Yuan (87) 6.33/+0.9; 4 Liu Huahua 6.32/0.0; 5 Bi Xiaohui 6.24/+0.6.
Triple Jump, qualification: Huang Qiuyan 14.36/+1.3; 2 Wu Xueli 14.01/0.0; 3 Lin Baohua 13.85/+0.7; 4 Qiu Huijing 13.77/+1.5; 5 Sha Li (88) 13.76/+1.0; 6 Zhang Hao 13.74/+0.8; 7 Wang Ying 13.70/+1.3; 8 Wu Lingmei 13.66/+0.6; 9 Xie Limei (86) 13.51/+0.4.
Discus, qualification: Sun Taifeng 59.33; 2 Wang Yu 58.76; 3 Ma Xuejun 58.34; 4 Huang Qun 57.99; 5 Ma Shuli 57.95; 6 Li Qiumei 57.13; 7 Tao Hongbo 56.86; 8 Xu Shaoyang 56.04; 9 Cao Qi 55.82; 10 Tan Jian 55.58; 11 Cao Liping54.20; 12 Wang Bin 53.96; 13 Liu Fengying 53.90; 14 Xiao Yanling 53.65; 15 Pan Saili (88) 53.33.
Javelin: Xue Juan 59.72; 2 Ma Ning 58.01; 3 Zhang Li (88) 57.80; 4 Chu Chunxia 57.73; 5 Geng Aihua 56.64; 6 Liu Chunhua (86) 55.18; 7 Zhang Li 54.49; 8 Yi Chunmei 53.99; 9 Liang Lili 53.16.
Heptathlon: Shen Shengfei 5834; 2 Liu Haili 5676; 3 Fu Pengcheng 5652; 4 Wang Hailan 5625; 5 Shi Wei 5565; 6 Cao Lan 5509; 7 Song Lijuan (87) 5448.
