Chinese race walker Yang Jiayu (© Getty Images)
Chinese athletes won four of the seven titles up for grabs on the fourth day of action at the 7th CISM Military World Games in Wuhan, China, on Friday (25).
Twenty-year-old Xu Hao kicked off the day with a decisive victory in the 20km race walk, clocking 1:22:18, exactly one minute ahead of Ukraine’s Viktor Shumik. Miroslav Uradnik of Slovakia was third, nearly another minute back in 1:24:16.
There was a Chinese 1-2 in the women's 20km race, where Yang Jiayu, the 2017 world champion, prevailed over Yin Hang, the 2017 world 50km silver medallist, in 1:30:03. Yang, who also took the Asian Games title last year, was disqualified in the 20km race at the World Championships. Yin clocked 1:33:16, a season's best.
The momentum continued in the men's 50km race walk where Wang Qin, last year's Asian Games silver medallist, took top honours in 3:51:56. Dzmitry Dziubin of Belarus was second in 3:53:14.
Zhang Li dominated the women's javelin, securing the title with a 63.06m effort, a season's best for the 30-year-old who took the world youth title back in 2005. Brazil's Laila Ferrer was a distant second with 56.02m.
The highlight on the track was the women's 1500m, won by Kenyan national champion and Doha finalist Winnie Chebet, who prevailed in a tactical battle over Ukraine's Nataliya Pryshchepa, 4:25.22 to 4:26.63. Pryshchepa won the 800m title two days ago.
Other titles went to Olga Rypakova, the 2012 Olympic triple jump champion, who took her specialty with a 14.19m leap and Yekaterina Poplavskaya of Belarus who won the 100m hurdles crown in 13.36.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
