Shanghai diamond league and national GP were onstage this week.
In Shanghai, Su Xinyue, from Hebei, national champion and Worlds finalist last year, set a pb at 64.45m in women's discus, finishing 4th behind Sandra Pekovic and improving her pb from 64.27m, the winning mark at the Nationals last year. After retirement of Li Yanfeng, Olympic bronze medalist in 2012, Chinese women's discus has seen a drop in level as there has not been anyone stepping up to 65m region. There is young Gu Siyu, who threw 67.86m in 2013 but she has never been able to replicate such form after that. Tan Jian, who has been on 64.45m and finished 6th in 2011 and 2013 Worlds, also has been quiet after winning 2013 National Games over Li. Su's steady improvement marks a potential top 8 in Rio Olympics.
Highlights have been on men's sprinters. Su Bingtian and Zhang Peimeng, the top Chinese sprinters, sat out the individual races due to minor injuries while the young Mo Youxue and Xie Zhenye were in the main race in 100m. The results were a little disappointing as Xie, 4th in men's 60m Worlds indoor recently, claimed he couldn't hear the gun and finished 8th at 10.31s while Mo, former world youth champion in 100m, pulled his hamstring during the race and finished last at 10.66s. The best result achieved by Chinese was Tang Xingqiang from Fujian, who won the first race in 10.30s. Due to Mo's injury, Mo was substituted by Chen Shiwei, from Fujian for Chinese men's 4x100m relay team, which won a surprising silver at Worlds last year. They (Chen, Xie, Su and Zhang) won at 38.71s over Jamaican team.
The sole Chinese win was men's long jump by Gao Xinlong at 8.14m with a field including Fabrice Lapirre and Jeff Henderson. His team mate, Wang Jiannan, world bronze medalist, Zhang Yaoguang and Huang Changzhou finished 5th-7th with distances of 7.96m, 7.87m and 7.84m. Wang was just recovered from a minor injury so he is expected to jump better in the upcoming competitions. Veteran, Li Jinzhe, will be likely to start his first competition in Beijing challenge next week.
Another popular event, men's high jump, saw Zhang Guowei and Wang Yu finished 2nd and 3rd behind Bordarenko on count back, all at the same height of 2.28m. The Chinese duo already jumped 2.33m in Kawasaki a week ago showing good consistency.
Zhao Qinggang, Asian record holder in men's javelin with a superb 89.15m set in 2014, finished 8th with a modest 75.92m. He has been plagued with injuries after his Asian Games in 2014 and only competed sparingly in 2015. National record holder in pole vault, Xue Changrui, did not start his first competition well only achieving 5.40m.
There were a few quality performances from Chinese women's distance runners: Zhao Jing, women's 800m bronze medalist in 2014 Asian Games, ran a 4:09.28 in front of her home crowd and Zhang Xianqian, from Zhejiang, ran a pb at 4:10.32. After achieving pb at 9:28 about a week ago, Zhang Xinyan repeated her performance with 9:29.52 (9th)
Other highlights include Xie Wenjun at 13.34s in men's 110m hurdle (3rd) with seemingly stagnant progress, Yao Jie achieving seasonal best in men's pole vault (5.62m), Liu Yang's 19.30m in men's shot put, Wei Yongli's 23.29s in women's 200m (5th) and Chinese women's 4x100m team winning at 43.04.
In National GP held in Zhengzhou from 12-14th May, the results were mostly lackluster. Notable results include men's 1500m by Xu Pengcheng at 3:45.76, a domestic best in 2016, men's long jump by Zhong Peifeng at 7.92m, women's 400m hurdles by Wang Yan at 57.24s, men's 400m hurdles by Shang Shuo 50.32s. Furthermore, Liu Ruihuan, who has qualified for women's marathon in Rio, ran a quick 32:15.40 in women's 10,000m and her chaser, Zheng Zhiling, was at 32:57.66.
Sunday, May 15, 2016
Saturday, May 07, 2016
Sun Yang's Weibo speech
In China, what Sun Yang is trying to show to the public is the positive side of him even though he has been through so many adversities. On 5/5, he post a Weibo thanking a bunch of people that helped him in the hard times. In the end, it seems more like a PR speech. However, he mentioned a lot of people except the controversial figures like Dr. Ba Zhen and his Australian coaches who should have helped him a lot in the past. If he did, his speech would sound a little more sincere. The most controversial one he mentioned is Park Tae Hwan, who will not be swimming in Rio. It is difficult to image how he can brush aside all the news around him so effortlessly like his doping and his unsolved mystery before 1500m free final.
As for his doping, he did not know the drug was updated in the latest banned list at the time and he took it for his heart problem. Actually, did he ever show any medical evidence (or 3rd party examination) to prove that his drug administration is really necessary? Now, he cannot take the drug. Does he mean that he needs to take another drug to control his condition? If not, is his condition going to deteriorate? If he is taking other drug, what is it? And is it going to be on the next list? Or they will switch a new drug once the old drug is added in? Before 1500m free final, a few events happened: a brawl with Brazilian female swimmer, locker room argument and last-minute pull out from the final. The brawl in the end was actually never resolved. Finally, there are still question marks hanging in the air.
As for his doping, he did not know the drug was updated in the latest banned list at the time and he took it for his heart problem. Actually, did he ever show any medical evidence (or 3rd party examination) to prove that his drug administration is really necessary? Now, he cannot take the drug. Does he mean that he needs to take another drug to control his condition? If not, is his condition going to deteriorate? If he is taking other drug, what is it? And is it going to be on the next list? Or they will switch a new drug once the old drug is added in? Before 1500m free final, a few events happened: a brawl with Brazilian female swimmer, locker room argument and last-minute pull out from the final. The brawl in the end was actually never resolved. Finally, there are still question marks hanging in the air.
Zhang Xinyan ran 9:28.54 at women's 3000m steeplechase
In Luoyang, a low-key national meet was held for distance running on May 6 and 7. The first event of women's 3000m steeplechase saw Zhang Xinyan achieved an Olympic qualifying mark (9:45.00) at 9:28.54, less than 2 seconds off the national record. Zhang ran 4:16.38 at 1500m on the next day. Li Zhixuan from Inner Mongolia won women's 5000m at 15:41.19 on day 1. One of the rising young runners, Zheng Zhiling from Shanghai, ran 32:56.66 at 10,000m on day 2. In recent first leg of National GP, Wang Chunyu, world youth championships medalist, ran 2:02, which was not far from the Olympic qualifying mark.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Awards at Swimming Nationals/Olympic trial
The best male swimmer: Wang Shun
Wang won 3 golds in IM double and 200m free. His swims in Nationals were all slower than his pb but he won the most golds in this championships. He won bronze in 200m IM at Worlds last year.
The best female swimmer: Shi Jinglin
Shi won breaststroke double and set a pb in 100m breaststroke at 1:06.2. She won bronze in 200m breaststroke at Worlds last year
Breakthrough award: Xu Jiayu and Li Zhuhao
Both swam national records. Xu broke his own men's 200m back and it is his first to get into 1:54 region. Xu also won backstroke double. Li on the other hand tied Zhou Jiawei's record at 51.24, which was swum in tech suit back in 2009. Li was a double winner in men's butterfly.
Heritage award: Chen Xinyi
Chen is a up and coming butterfly and sprinting freestyle ace who could be a potential successor of her veteran swimmers like Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang in butterfly and a potential Asian record breaker in women's 50m free, which was the last record in the book from the 1990s era held by Le Jingyi in 1994 (24.51). She will also be a potential Olympic medalist in 100m fly as a current world 2nd fastest swimmer.
Potential award: Shen Duo and Qiu Yuhan
Shen has won multiple golds at Youth Olympics in 2014 in front of her home crowd (Nanjing) and two-time finalist (100 and 200m free) at Worlds last year. She also anchored for the 4x100m medley relay team to win the gold at Worlds and was part of the bronze-winning team in 4x200m free relay. Qiu has been a consistent improver in 100/200m free and she stepped up and swam a 1:56 first leg in 4x200m free relay final at Worlds. They both enter 1:55 territories in 200m free at recent Nationals and are ready to swim fast at Rio Olympics if preparation goes well.
Sportsmanship award: Liu Zige and Lu Ying
Both 27-year-old veterans have different fate to their Olympic road. Liu, Olympic champion in 2008, World champion in 2013, and world record holder, failed to qualify for her 3rd Olympics in her signature event, 200m butterfly. Her time was still decent at 2:08 though. She has been nagged by the neck and shoulder injury. Lu, on the other hand, only started to shine in 2010 at Asian Games and since has been a medalist in all major competitions. Once again, she qualified for her 2nd Olympics but will need to be at peak (like her 1st one) to medal again.
Courage award: Ye Shiwen
A lot of doubts have been hovering over Ye. After her double IM wins at London Olympics 4 years ago, a 16 year-old has been going through a lot in this 4 years. At first, she needed to respond to the doping doubts on her when she swam faster in the last 100m in 400m IM than the male champion, Ryan Lochte. She has been a nervous kid, who was reportedly suffered from insomnia. The external suspect only adds on to her existing stress. Then her physique has a drastic change in these 4 years as she has been struggling with her weight problem. It takes efforts to change her training and technique to cater for her ever-changing body. Last year, she had fractured bones in her foot and could not swim well in the Worlds last year. At the recent Nationals, she suffered from stomach cramp in the middle of 400m IM final and could not finish top 3. Then she bounced back to win 200m IM in a few days later after that disappointment. She was quoted that her form has recovered to 60-70% and will train in Australia for her Olympic preparation.
Team award: 4x200m free: Wang, Li Yunqi, Qiu Ziao, Shang Keyuan
Wang and Shang are both Zhejiang. while Li from Henan and Qiu from Shanghai. They swam a 7:13, which should be good enough to qualify for Olympics. At Olympics, if Sun Yang is part of the team (you never know), he will be one of indispensable component to propel the team to medal position.
Newcomer award: Qiao and Ai Yanhan
Qiao won 2 golds in 400m/1500m free and qualified for Olympics. It will be more of an experience for Qiao in the games rather than winning medals. Ai, still a 14-year-old girl, swam 1:56 low at recent Nationals, has been tipped to be one of the next swimmer stars. This is still hard to say for Ai as China has been producing fast teenager swimmers who seldom fulfil their potentials in their later years.
Coach award: Yao Zhenjie, Zhu Zhigen, Xu Guoyi, Liu Haitao, Han Bingyan, Jin Wei, Li Xuegang, Cui Dengrong, He Donghui
Coach and swimmers
Zhu: Wang Shun and Shang Keyuan (Past: Chen Hua, Yu Cheng and Sun Yang)
Xu: Ye Shiwen, Li Zhuhao and Xu Jiayu
Liu: Zhou Yilin, Ai Yanhan, Hao Yun (Past: Jiao Liuyang and Chen Yin)
Han: Shi Jinglin (Past: Chen Yan and Luo Nan)
Jin: Chen Xinyi and Liu Zige
Li*: Fu Yuanhui.
Cui: Le Ying, Qiu Ziao and Shi Yang
He: Qiu Yuhan (Past: Liu Weijia)
*Li has been assisting Xu in coaching his swimmers because Xu is recovering from a brain surgery.
Wang won 3 golds in IM double and 200m free. His swims in Nationals were all slower than his pb but he won the most golds in this championships. He won bronze in 200m IM at Worlds last year.
The best female swimmer: Shi Jinglin
Shi won breaststroke double and set a pb in 100m breaststroke at 1:06.2. She won bronze in 200m breaststroke at Worlds last year
Breakthrough award: Xu Jiayu and Li Zhuhao
Both swam national records. Xu broke his own men's 200m back and it is his first to get into 1:54 region. Xu also won backstroke double. Li on the other hand tied Zhou Jiawei's record at 51.24, which was swum in tech suit back in 2009. Li was a double winner in men's butterfly.
Heritage award: Chen Xinyi
Chen is a up and coming butterfly and sprinting freestyle ace who could be a potential successor of her veteran swimmers like Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang in butterfly and a potential Asian record breaker in women's 50m free, which was the last record in the book from the 1990s era held by Le Jingyi in 1994 (24.51). She will also be a potential Olympic medalist in 100m fly as a current world 2nd fastest swimmer.
Potential award: Shen Duo and Qiu Yuhan
Shen has won multiple golds at Youth Olympics in 2014 in front of her home crowd (Nanjing) and two-time finalist (100 and 200m free) at Worlds last year. She also anchored for the 4x100m medley relay team to win the gold at Worlds and was part of the bronze-winning team in 4x200m free relay. Qiu has been a consistent improver in 100/200m free and she stepped up and swam a 1:56 first leg in 4x200m free relay final at Worlds. They both enter 1:55 territories in 200m free at recent Nationals and are ready to swim fast at Rio Olympics if preparation goes well.
Sportsmanship award: Liu Zige and Lu Ying
Both 27-year-old veterans have different fate to their Olympic road. Liu, Olympic champion in 2008, World champion in 2013, and world record holder, failed to qualify for her 3rd Olympics in her signature event, 200m butterfly. Her time was still decent at 2:08 though. She has been nagged by the neck and shoulder injury. Lu, on the other hand, only started to shine in 2010 at Asian Games and since has been a medalist in all major competitions. Once again, she qualified for her 2nd Olympics but will need to be at peak (like her 1st one) to medal again.
Courage award: Ye Shiwen
A lot of doubts have been hovering over Ye. After her double IM wins at London Olympics 4 years ago, a 16 year-old has been going through a lot in this 4 years. At first, she needed to respond to the doping doubts on her when she swam faster in the last 100m in 400m IM than the male champion, Ryan Lochte. She has been a nervous kid, who was reportedly suffered from insomnia. The external suspect only adds on to her existing stress. Then her physique has a drastic change in these 4 years as she has been struggling with her weight problem. It takes efforts to change her training and technique to cater for her ever-changing body. Last year, she had fractured bones in her foot and could not swim well in the Worlds last year. At the recent Nationals, she suffered from stomach cramp in the middle of 400m IM final and could not finish top 3. Then she bounced back to win 200m IM in a few days later after that disappointment. She was quoted that her form has recovered to 60-70% and will train in Australia for her Olympic preparation.
Team award: 4x200m free: Wang, Li Yunqi, Qiu Ziao, Shang Keyuan
Wang and Shang are both Zhejiang. while Li from Henan and Qiu from Shanghai. They swam a 7:13, which should be good enough to qualify for Olympics. At Olympics, if Sun Yang is part of the team (you never know), he will be one of indispensable component to propel the team to medal position.
Newcomer award: Qiao and Ai Yanhan
Qiao won 2 golds in 400m/1500m free and qualified for Olympics. It will be more of an experience for Qiao in the games rather than winning medals. Ai, still a 14-year-old girl, swam 1:56 low at recent Nationals, has been tipped to be one of the next swimmer stars. This is still hard to say for Ai as China has been producing fast teenager swimmers who seldom fulfil their potentials in their later years.
Coach award: Yao Zhenjie, Zhu Zhigen, Xu Guoyi, Liu Haitao, Han Bingyan, Jin Wei, Li Xuegang, Cui Dengrong, He Donghui
Coach and swimmers
Zhu: Wang Shun and Shang Keyuan (Past: Chen Hua, Yu Cheng and Sun Yang)
Xu: Ye Shiwen, Li Zhuhao and Xu Jiayu
Liu: Zhou Yilin, Ai Yanhan, Hao Yun (Past: Jiao Liuyang and Chen Yin)
Han: Shi Jinglin (Past: Chen Yan and Luo Nan)
Jin: Chen Xinyi and Liu Zige
Li*: Fu Yuanhui.
Cui: Le Ying, Qiu Ziao and Shi Yang
He: Qiu Yuhan (Past: Liu Weijia)
*Li has been assisting Xu in coaching his swimmers because Xu is recovering from a brain surgery.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Prospect of Chinese swimming in Rio Olympics
Rio Olympics are coming and many countries had held their Olympics trials this month. US, the swimming powerhouse, will only hold theirs in June.
After Olympics trial, the medal prospect of Chinese swimming is good but gold medal prospects may be grimmer than the last Olympic cycle.
In 2011, Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen won world titles in Shanghai Worlds. Sun Yang had risen to dominant force in 400m and 1500m free and Ye has been swimming top times in women's 200m IM in both 2010 and 2011 although her 400m IM was still a little undeveloped before 2012. Furthermore, Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige were still swimming fast with vast experience in major competitions since 2008.
The track records aligned well with their results in London Olympics. Sun, Ye and Jiao all shone in the pool. Breakthrough includes men's 4x200m free relay team and Ye's stunning performance in 400m IM, where the last 100m free of her world-record swim was still deemed to be "unbelievable". All their swims were "better appreciated" as they had (at least) some track records and they were not tested positive.
After 2012, changes in Chinese swimming scene does not seem to impress international swimming community.
Their top swimmer, Sun Yang, had gone through a series of troubles and ended up as a drug cheat who secretly served his dope ban. It was a big contrast to his swimming rival, Park Tae Kwan, whose ban came in the same year as Sun while his ban was much longer with ineligibility to be in Rio Olympics. Sun has been winning golds in all major competitions but his dominance was no longer exists. In 400m free, he has not been improving his times after his near-world record swim in 400m free in 2012. His signature event, 1500m free is not progressing either. While he is not improving, his opponents are improving. Horton swum 3:41 this year and there are already two more sub-14:40 swimmers (Horton and Paltrinieri) that could threaten his status. Last year, he already lost his 1500m crown to Paltrinieri and was pushed by James Guy in 400m free. Other than the changed scene in his events, his training could be an issue. He used to train with Zhu Zhigen since young and with Dennis Cotterell in Australia. He also trained with other Chinese team mates like Hao Yun and Li Yunqi, both swimming promising times before 2012 Olympics. After a series of events after Olympics, he split with Zhu and started training with Zhang Yadong, who used to train Luo Xuejuan, women's 100m breaststroke champion in Athens Olympics in 2004. Then it came Brian King, a problematic Australian coach, after Sun Yang was banned from training in those clubs sponsored by government for their Olympic swimmers. He also seemed to train alone with no other team mates. Early this year, Sun Yang injured his foot and his training has been suffered since. He constantly showed his speedy recovery in his Weibo but decided to pull out from the Nationals. Likely, there will be no competitions before Rio for him. Remember, his last competition was September at Nationals. Lack of competitions could be another barrier.
Ye Shiwen's post-Olympic performances were erratic. Her injuries, weight gain and mental state seem to hinder her progress. She won her Olympic titles at 16 and since, she was reported to gain weight that has been changing her physique and she was also reported to be a nervous swimmer, who has been under a lot of competition stress that causes her insomnia. She did not medal in the last 2 Worlds. Both were claimed to be due to some sort of injuries or health conditions. The recent one was the fractured bone in the foot that required surgery. In recent Nationals, she reportedly had a stomach cramp in the 400m IM final after a heat swim of 4:44. Few days later, she won 200m IM at 2:12. Compared to her winning times in Olympics 4 years ago, 4:28 and 2:07, together with Hosszu, who has been dominating women's IMs in recent years, Ye's road to Rio looks very grim.
Butterfly duo, Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige has helped China regain their power since 2008. Both of them are not going to swim in Rio as both have suffered health problem that hinder their progress, as described in my previous post. Last year, the world title of 200m butterfly went to Natsumi Hoshi and neither Jiao or Liu was in the final. Obviously, their dominance in this event was over although China has a new medalist in this event, Zhang Yufei, who won bronze.
Among these mentioned swimmers, Sun is the only one who has better prospect in winning again at Olympics. Who else could help China maintain or improve their medal count in the upcoming battle?
Overall, it will be tough for China to medal in this edition of Games. Some may tip newly crowned 100m free world champion, Ning Zetao but his event is always highly competitive. His winning time at Kazan last year may not be fast enough to medal in Olympics. Until this point, there have been 3-4 sub-48 swimmers (including him) this year, there will be more fast times in Rio. This year, McEvoy has improved to 47.04 and Ning's progress seemed to be stagnant. In recent National, he suffered from exhaustion after his 47.96 swim at semi final. His health condition causes worries that he needs to swim fast in all three rounds of 100m free on top of all the relays.
Another world champion, Fu Yuanhui, won gold in 50m back but she has not proven to be a force for the podium in 100m back. Her pb is 59.02 but obviously, medalist will need 58. She is now recovering from illness and only finished last in recent Nationals. Without her, China's 4x100m medley relay team will also suffer while they surprised everyone to win last year at Worlds. Their second best swimmer will be Cheng Haihua at 59.55, but lack of experience at major meets will cast a question mark on her performance.
In women's individual events, there are only few medal hopes. In 50m free, Le Jingyi's 24.51 former WR still holds. Chen Xinyi swam 24.53 recently but still not good enough to threaten the top girls. In 100m free, Tang Yi's surprise in winning bronze at last Olympics did not hold long. No other Chinese swimmer (including Tang) surpassed her time (53.27) since while there are more international swimmers going sub-53. The recent Nationals results were not helping as there was only one 53-high swim for the whole meet. In 200m free, good progress to form a fast 4x200m free but there is no sub-1:55 swimmer from China yet. China boast 2 1:55 swimmers and a couple of 1:56 swimmers, which could challenge silver or even gold medal in Rio only if all swimmers swim well. Quality swims were seen in 400m (4:05) and 800m (8:24) free but it is still unrealistic to tip any medalist from China.
In backstroke, Fu Yuanhui is currently the only one who could make an impact in 100m back but she is not in good health condition. Progress in 200m back has been stalled after Zhao Jing retired. In breaststroke, Shi Jinglin could final in 100m and 200m but medaling will be difficult. Her chance in 200m breaststroke is better (as she is a joint bronze medalist last year's Worlds) but she needs a breakout swim to get to top 3.
In butterfly, China has a higher hope to medal. Le Ying has been medalist in major competitions in the last 4 years since she won a silver in London Olympics and her time has been stabilized at 56-high and 57-low. She will need to swim even faster this time to medal again as Sjostrom is almost untouchable and Vollmer has been on the comeback track. China boasts another medal hope as Chen Xinyi swam 56 again this year after a 56.61 in 2014. She was also in the Worlds final last year so this could set up a good stage for her to finish top 3 in Rio. In 200m fly, China currently has three 2:06 swimmers: Zhou Yilin, Zhang Yufei and Wang Siqi. Zhou, at 24, has been a 2:08 swimmer for a number of years. In the recent National, she finally got her breakout swim. While Zhang is still at 18, she had already won bronze at Worlds last year. Wang, still a junior, won world junior title last year and swam 2:06 later last year. All three set up as potential medal contender.
In individual medley, it will be hard to have medal contender if Ye does not regain her 2012 form. Although Zhou Min swam 4:33 before in this Olympic cycle, her recent performances are still not convincing to be medal contender.
There will be more hopes in women's 4x100m medley and 4x200m free relay. In 4x100m medley, even though there was no super swimmer in each leg, their finalist/medalist in each individual 100m event propelled them well to win last year at Worlds. Fu in 100m back, Shi in 100m breaststroke, Le in 100m fly and Shen Duo in free combined well and generated great result. The key will be Fu, who swam 59-low in the relay final last year. Shi improved her 100m breaststroke to 1:06 low this year. Le/Chen will be reliable fly relay swimmer. Shen improved her 200m free to her first sub 1:56 this year even though did not swim well in 100m free. In 4x200m free, Shen and Qiu Yuhan will be key swimmers. Qiu has been improving and given chances in swimming major meets. She already swam 1:56 at Worlds last year and improved to 1:55.8 this year. Last year, they won bronze at Worlds. The other 2 in the final were Guo Junjun, veteran 200m free swimmer, and Zhang Yufei, bronze in 200m fly in the same meet. Zhang will swim again this year, as she finished 4th in recent Nationals at 1:57. The other swimmer could be Ai Yanhan, who swam 1:56. Wang Shijia, another veteran, could also be going as she finished top 6.
On men's side, there are also medal contenders. No medal contender in 50m free as only Ning can swim 21-high, which is not fast enough to medal. Ning may have better luck in 100m if he can swim 47-mid, a slight improvement from his 2014 time (47.65s). In 200-1500m free, Sun Yang will be medal contender but his gold medal chance is lower this time as challenges are stiffer at this Olympics. He will need to swim or surpass his London's time to win.
In men's back, Chinese no. 1 Xu Jiayu will be top 6 contender in both 100m and 200m. Unless he regains his form in 2014 when he swam 52.34s in Chinese Nationals, he could be in the mix in 100m back. So far, he is a consistent 52-mid to 53-low swimmer in major meet but to win a medal, he will need more. He does improve his 200m back to 1:54-high region. At Olympics, a 1:53 or 1:54 low may be required.
In men's breaststroke, which used to be one of the weakest link in China, boasts 2 sub-1:00 swimmers this year in 100m breaststroke. Wang Lizhuo's fate is still unclear due to his doping case even though he got down to 59.64s to put Chinese 4x100m medley team in a good position. In 200m, Worlds finalist last year, Mao Feilian swam 2:09-high this year, could final again if he can go 2:09 low.
In men's fly, medal hope will be Li Zhuhao in 100m fly. He equaled Zhou Jiawei's NR, 51.24s this year. He was finalist at Worlds last year and he has better prospect to get down to 50s region. If this happens, fate will decide whether he will win a medal in an event where Phelps and LeClos are both swimming. After retirement of Wu Peng and Chen Yin, both multiple finalists at major meets, Li could final but medaling could be difficult.
In men's IM event, Wang Shun will carry the medal hope. He won his first medal in 200m IM at Worlds last year (Bronze) in the absence of Phelps and Hagino so it will be super competitive to finish top 3. His bronze winning time, 1:56.81, is already his pb and he may require something like 1:55 low or 1:54 high to medal.
With the aid of Ning Zetao, China finally put their team in men's 4x100m free final at Worlds last year....In the absence of US and Australia team. It will be hard to final this year but is possible. Apart from Ning, China has two more 48s swimmers, and one 49-low swimmer, so it is still possible. In 4x200m free, China has Sun + two 1:47 swimmers. Wang have to go 1:46 (like what he did back in 2011) or even 1:45 to pick up the pace and then they need 2 more 1:47 splits to hold on before Sun could finish off in good positions. The better prospect in Rio will be 4x100m medley, as a lot of others are talking about and fearing at the same time. They have a 52s back swimmer (Xu), a 51-low fly swimmer (Li) and a sub-48 free swimmer (Ning). Now, they have one more sub-1:00 breaststroke swimmer (Wang) in the team while his participation could infuriate a lot of people. If they swim to their full potential, they could get down to 3:31 and get to the podium. On the other hand, their medal winning could also expect more suspicious noises from others.
After Olympics trial, the medal prospect of Chinese swimming is good but gold medal prospects may be grimmer than the last Olympic cycle.
In 2011, Sun Yang and Ye Shiwen won world titles in Shanghai Worlds. Sun Yang had risen to dominant force in 400m and 1500m free and Ye has been swimming top times in women's 200m IM in both 2010 and 2011 although her 400m IM was still a little undeveloped before 2012. Furthermore, Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige were still swimming fast with vast experience in major competitions since 2008.
The track records aligned well with their results in London Olympics. Sun, Ye and Jiao all shone in the pool. Breakthrough includes men's 4x200m free relay team and Ye's stunning performance in 400m IM, where the last 100m free of her world-record swim was still deemed to be "unbelievable". All their swims were "better appreciated" as they had (at least) some track records and they were not tested positive.
After 2012, changes in Chinese swimming scene does not seem to impress international swimming community.
Their top swimmer, Sun Yang, had gone through a series of troubles and ended up as a drug cheat who secretly served his dope ban. It was a big contrast to his swimming rival, Park Tae Kwan, whose ban came in the same year as Sun while his ban was much longer with ineligibility to be in Rio Olympics. Sun has been winning golds in all major competitions but his dominance was no longer exists. In 400m free, he has not been improving his times after his near-world record swim in 400m free in 2012. His signature event, 1500m free is not progressing either. While he is not improving, his opponents are improving. Horton swum 3:41 this year and there are already two more sub-14:40 swimmers (Horton and Paltrinieri) that could threaten his status. Last year, he already lost his 1500m crown to Paltrinieri and was pushed by James Guy in 400m free. Other than the changed scene in his events, his training could be an issue. He used to train with Zhu Zhigen since young and with Dennis Cotterell in Australia. He also trained with other Chinese team mates like Hao Yun and Li Yunqi, both swimming promising times before 2012 Olympics. After a series of events after Olympics, he split with Zhu and started training with Zhang Yadong, who used to train Luo Xuejuan, women's 100m breaststroke champion in Athens Olympics in 2004. Then it came Brian King, a problematic Australian coach, after Sun Yang was banned from training in those clubs sponsored by government for their Olympic swimmers. He also seemed to train alone with no other team mates. Early this year, Sun Yang injured his foot and his training has been suffered since. He constantly showed his speedy recovery in his Weibo but decided to pull out from the Nationals. Likely, there will be no competitions before Rio for him. Remember, his last competition was September at Nationals. Lack of competitions could be another barrier.
Ye Shiwen's post-Olympic performances were erratic. Her injuries, weight gain and mental state seem to hinder her progress. She won her Olympic titles at 16 and since, she was reported to gain weight that has been changing her physique and she was also reported to be a nervous swimmer, who has been under a lot of competition stress that causes her insomnia. She did not medal in the last 2 Worlds. Both were claimed to be due to some sort of injuries or health conditions. The recent one was the fractured bone in the foot that required surgery. In recent Nationals, she reportedly had a stomach cramp in the 400m IM final after a heat swim of 4:44. Few days later, she won 200m IM at 2:12. Compared to her winning times in Olympics 4 years ago, 4:28 and 2:07, together with Hosszu, who has been dominating women's IMs in recent years, Ye's road to Rio looks very grim.
Butterfly duo, Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige has helped China regain their power since 2008. Both of them are not going to swim in Rio as both have suffered health problem that hinder their progress, as described in my previous post. Last year, the world title of 200m butterfly went to Natsumi Hoshi and neither Jiao or Liu was in the final. Obviously, their dominance in this event was over although China has a new medalist in this event, Zhang Yufei, who won bronze.
Among these mentioned swimmers, Sun is the only one who has better prospect in winning again at Olympics. Who else could help China maintain or improve their medal count in the upcoming battle?
Overall, it will be tough for China to medal in this edition of Games. Some may tip newly crowned 100m free world champion, Ning Zetao but his event is always highly competitive. His winning time at Kazan last year may not be fast enough to medal in Olympics. Until this point, there have been 3-4 sub-48 swimmers (including him) this year, there will be more fast times in Rio. This year, McEvoy has improved to 47.04 and Ning's progress seemed to be stagnant. In recent National, he suffered from exhaustion after his 47.96 swim at semi final. His health condition causes worries that he needs to swim fast in all three rounds of 100m free on top of all the relays.
Another world champion, Fu Yuanhui, won gold in 50m back but she has not proven to be a force for the podium in 100m back. Her pb is 59.02 but obviously, medalist will need 58. She is now recovering from illness and only finished last in recent Nationals. Without her, China's 4x100m medley relay team will also suffer while they surprised everyone to win last year at Worlds. Their second best swimmer will be Cheng Haihua at 59.55, but lack of experience at major meets will cast a question mark on her performance.
In women's individual events, there are only few medal hopes. In 50m free, Le Jingyi's 24.51 former WR still holds. Chen Xinyi swam 24.53 recently but still not good enough to threaten the top girls. In 100m free, Tang Yi's surprise in winning bronze at last Olympics did not hold long. No other Chinese swimmer (including Tang) surpassed her time (53.27) since while there are more international swimmers going sub-53. The recent Nationals results were not helping as there was only one 53-high swim for the whole meet. In 200m free, good progress to form a fast 4x200m free but there is no sub-1:55 swimmer from China yet. China boast 2 1:55 swimmers and a couple of 1:56 swimmers, which could challenge silver or even gold medal in Rio only if all swimmers swim well. Quality swims were seen in 400m (4:05) and 800m (8:24) free but it is still unrealistic to tip any medalist from China.
In backstroke, Fu Yuanhui is currently the only one who could make an impact in 100m back but she is not in good health condition. Progress in 200m back has been stalled after Zhao Jing retired. In breaststroke, Shi Jinglin could final in 100m and 200m but medaling will be difficult. Her chance in 200m breaststroke is better (as she is a joint bronze medalist last year's Worlds) but she needs a breakout swim to get to top 3.
In butterfly, China has a higher hope to medal. Le Ying has been medalist in major competitions in the last 4 years since she won a silver in London Olympics and her time has been stabilized at 56-high and 57-low. She will need to swim even faster this time to medal again as Sjostrom is almost untouchable and Vollmer has been on the comeback track. China boasts another medal hope as Chen Xinyi swam 56 again this year after a 56.61 in 2014. She was also in the Worlds final last year so this could set up a good stage for her to finish top 3 in Rio. In 200m fly, China currently has three 2:06 swimmers: Zhou Yilin, Zhang Yufei and Wang Siqi. Zhou, at 24, has been a 2:08 swimmer for a number of years. In the recent National, she finally got her breakout swim. While Zhang is still at 18, she had already won bronze at Worlds last year. Wang, still a junior, won world junior title last year and swam 2:06 later last year. All three set up as potential medal contender.
In individual medley, it will be hard to have medal contender if Ye does not regain her 2012 form. Although Zhou Min swam 4:33 before in this Olympic cycle, her recent performances are still not convincing to be medal contender.
There will be more hopes in women's 4x100m medley and 4x200m free relay. In 4x100m medley, even though there was no super swimmer in each leg, their finalist/medalist in each individual 100m event propelled them well to win last year at Worlds. Fu in 100m back, Shi in 100m breaststroke, Le in 100m fly and Shen Duo in free combined well and generated great result. The key will be Fu, who swam 59-low in the relay final last year. Shi improved her 100m breaststroke to 1:06 low this year. Le/Chen will be reliable fly relay swimmer. Shen improved her 200m free to her first sub 1:56 this year even though did not swim well in 100m free. In 4x200m free, Shen and Qiu Yuhan will be key swimmers. Qiu has been improving and given chances in swimming major meets. She already swam 1:56 at Worlds last year and improved to 1:55.8 this year. Last year, they won bronze at Worlds. The other 2 in the final were Guo Junjun, veteran 200m free swimmer, and Zhang Yufei, bronze in 200m fly in the same meet. Zhang will swim again this year, as she finished 4th in recent Nationals at 1:57. The other swimmer could be Ai Yanhan, who swam 1:56. Wang Shijia, another veteran, could also be going as she finished top 6.
On men's side, there are also medal contenders. No medal contender in 50m free as only Ning can swim 21-high, which is not fast enough to medal. Ning may have better luck in 100m if he can swim 47-mid, a slight improvement from his 2014 time (47.65s). In 200-1500m free, Sun Yang will be medal contender but his gold medal chance is lower this time as challenges are stiffer at this Olympics. He will need to swim or surpass his London's time to win.
In men's back, Chinese no. 1 Xu Jiayu will be top 6 contender in both 100m and 200m. Unless he regains his form in 2014 when he swam 52.34s in Chinese Nationals, he could be in the mix in 100m back. So far, he is a consistent 52-mid to 53-low swimmer in major meet but to win a medal, he will need more. He does improve his 200m back to 1:54-high region. At Olympics, a 1:53 or 1:54 low may be required.
In men's breaststroke, which used to be one of the weakest link in China, boasts 2 sub-1:00 swimmers this year in 100m breaststroke. Wang Lizhuo's fate is still unclear due to his doping case even though he got down to 59.64s to put Chinese 4x100m medley team in a good position. In 200m, Worlds finalist last year, Mao Feilian swam 2:09-high this year, could final again if he can go 2:09 low.
In men's fly, medal hope will be Li Zhuhao in 100m fly. He equaled Zhou Jiawei's NR, 51.24s this year. He was finalist at Worlds last year and he has better prospect to get down to 50s region. If this happens, fate will decide whether he will win a medal in an event where Phelps and LeClos are both swimming. After retirement of Wu Peng and Chen Yin, both multiple finalists at major meets, Li could final but medaling could be difficult.
In men's IM event, Wang Shun will carry the medal hope. He won his first medal in 200m IM at Worlds last year (Bronze) in the absence of Phelps and Hagino so it will be super competitive to finish top 3. His bronze winning time, 1:56.81, is already his pb and he may require something like 1:55 low or 1:54 high to medal.
With the aid of Ning Zetao, China finally put their team in men's 4x100m free final at Worlds last year....In the absence of US and Australia team. It will be hard to final this year but is possible. Apart from Ning, China has two more 48s swimmers, and one 49-low swimmer, so it is still possible. In 4x200m free, China has Sun + two 1:47 swimmers. Wang have to go 1:46 (like what he did back in 2011) or even 1:45 to pick up the pace and then they need 2 more 1:47 splits to hold on before Sun could finish off in good positions. The better prospect in Rio will be 4x100m medley, as a lot of others are talking about and fearing at the same time. They have a 52s back swimmer (Xu), a 51-low fly swimmer (Li) and a sub-48 free swimmer (Ning). Now, they have one more sub-1:00 breaststroke swimmer (Wang) in the team while his participation could infuriate a lot of people. If they swim to their full potential, they could get down to 3:31 and get to the podium. On the other hand, their medal winning could also expect more suspicious noises from others.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
The first post after 3 years
There have been a lot to happen in three years in both swimming and athletics for chinese athletes. Even though I haven't been writing anything for past three years, my daily dose of sports news from China is still part of my life...
Swimming:
1. Sun Yang's spiral
Sun Yang has been a flagship for brand new "Chinese swimming" after a series of doping events in 1990s. After he became the first gold medalist in Chinese male swimmer, his career has been spiced up with numerous herbs and spices. After his success in 2012 Olympics, he has been secretly accused by his teammates of his hostility towards his teammates. Even though this accusation has not been substantiated in the media, his current training status may have explained: he seems to train alone with his own team without other swimmers. Minor out-of-competition issues include his love affair and driving without a licence in 2013. He still managed to win three world titles in 2013 and two Asian Games titles in 2014. However, it was his Asian Games titles which were controversial that he was reported to serve a secret 3-month ban from doping. This definitely made the international swimming community feel suspicious of the way Chinese swimming association was handling his case. He, himself, also quickly got past his doping and won 2 more world titles in 2015 with new controversies. He was reported to be in a fight with a Brazilian female swimmer and pulled out from 1500m free at the last minute. There was also news quoting that before the race, he was seen to be very frustrated with a couple of Chinese officials in the changing room. All these behaviors have made him a bad name and he got a * behind him whenever he was mentioned in Swimvortex.
2. Rise of Ning Zetao
I first spotted this name in 2008-2009 but never thought too much about him when I remember he was a finalist in 200m IM at Chinese National Games in 2009. Then he swum a 49s in 2010 or 2011 and I noticed later he was banned due to Clenbuterol. After his success in 2014 Asian Games and swum a couples of 47s, his doping past was inevitably dug up like President election campaign. He later explained that during the time he was still a junior member in Navy, his meals solely rely on the food supplied by the team canteen and he supplemented his meals secretly by adding luncheon meats bought from the local shops. In Kazan Worlds last year, he became the first Asian male to win gold in sprinting freestyle event. But his name, similar to Sun Yang, was tainted with an * in Swimvortex reports. In addition to his success, his good East Asian look gains him even more fame and also pressure on him. Like the Chinese nationals this year, tickets are sell-out due to his presence but his IBS has kept him from action after a 47.96s in semis.
3. Rise of Chinese male swimmers
The quality of Chinese male swimmers are improving over the last decade. It is hard to believe that they only produce their first sub-50s swimmer in 100m free back in 2005 and now, they have 1 sub-48s and a couple of sub-49s swimmers. On the other hand, Zhejiang has been contributing a lot in the Chinese male swimming. Their first wave was Yu Cheng and Wu Peng in early 2000s. Yu and Wu lowered men's 1500m free to 15:15 level in 2001. Then Yu further lowered to 15:10. Then it came to Beijing's Zhang Lin and Sun Yang (also from Zhejiang) who brought to the current level. Wu Peng has been multiple medalist in 200m fly at worlds although he failed to win a single Olympic medal. He also helped improve the national record from 1:58 to 1:54. Then it came Xu Jiayu and Li Zhuhao, both Zhejiang swimmers, who has been swimming world class times in recent years. Worth to mention for contributions are Beijing's Chen Zuo together with Zhang Lin and Guangdong's Zhou Jiawei. Chen is the ice-breaker in 100m free. He dipped below 50s in 2005 and then 49s in 2008. While his improving pace did not keep up with the fast pace in the international swimming, he has been a consistent performer from 2001 to 2013. Zhang Lin is another milestone for Chinese swimming when he is the first world record holder (800m free in 2009 Rome) and first Olympic medalist (400m free in 2008) for Chinese male swimmer. Before him, the best result is Jiang Chengji's 4th (both in 50m free and 100m fly) in 1996 Atlanta. His career has been cut short due to his lung problem that compromises his endurance. Zhou Jiawei, won his first national title in 100m fly back in 2000, but did not make the Olympic team. He also did not swim in the next 2 editions until London, where he got to swim his first and also his last Olympics. Like Chen on the record, he is the first Chinese male who dipped below 53s and then below 52s. At 33, he still swam a 52.44s recently in Chinese nationals (3rd) where he wanted to qualify for one more Olympics (but failed).
4. Swan songs for Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige
Since 2008, Jiao and Liu have been the butterfly duo who has taken turns to win most of the major titles/medals in women's 200m fly: 2008 Olympic gold and silver; 2009 Worlds silver; 2011 Worlds gold; 2012 Olympic gold and 2013 Worlds gold. Their monopoly is over and now they both are facing different health problems. Jiao has been battling gastric problem since 2012 while Liu has her nagging problem in shoulders. Jiao's recovery is slow but never officially announced her retirement while Liu swam Olympic trial recently and finished 5th in 2:08, a decent time, but was not fast enough to qualify. She was upset and cried after she failed to qualify for her third Olympics.
4. Suspicion
There are more * on Chinese swimmers, China has attempted to clean up their sports after doping scandal in 1990s. However, there have been consistent doping cases not only on the provincial swimmers but also national team swimmers. This include Wu Yanyan (former 200m IM world record holder), Ouyang Kunpeng (former top male backstroke swimmer), Li Zhesi (freestyle leg in 4x100m medley gold medal team in 2009 Worlds), Sun Yang (Olympic champion) and Ning Zetao (World champion). Ning is a little different from the rest that he was caught way before he swam fast times. Lately, 2 more from last year and 3 more from this year were caught. Wang Lizhuo and An Jiaobao are the 2 who were caught last year on Clenbuterol and got away with warnings and fines. This infuriates the international swimming community and their recent showing in Nationals, breaking records and qualifying for Olympics did not help the situation. Furthermore, the 3 Hunan swimmers that have been reported doping could also be the top national swimmers, if I am not wrong. Their absence in Nationals has deepened my suspicion for these three swimmers with surnames starting with Li, Huang and Yang. One of the Swimvortex comments mentioned Zhejiang's swimmers are believed to be cleanest and the worst are those from central provinces and Liaoning. I totally agree and Shanghai has also been on clean record after 2000 except for one Clenbuterol case in 2005.
Athletics:
1. Breakthroughs in sprinting
As one of the most fascinating events on track, Chinese has been hoping for their first sub-10 sprinter. It finally happened last year when Su Bingtian ran 9.99s. More convincing is that he ran once in US and once in Worlds. Their breakthrough in sprinting is unexpected, provided that their national record before 2013 was 10.16s. In 2013, Zhang Peimeng was first to take off, running 10.0s couple of times. This also inspired Su to level off. The highlight in 2013 was Zhang who ran 10s flat in Worlds semis. In 2014, their times were not as fast but still on par. Su has been a more consistent one when he was came 4th in 60m at World Indoors. The highlight was 37.99s Asian record win in 4x100m at Asian Games. 2015 was a fruitful year for Su where he is the first sub-10s for East Asian and was able to repeat the feat in Worlds when Beijing was the host. Their 4x100m team won a history silver in the meet and set another Asian record 37.92s in the heats. In 2016, his form has been better and already tied Asian 60m record at 6.50s in recent World Indoors. His younger team mate, Xie Zhenye, who is more a 200m specialist, also ran 6.53s in the final.
2. Their results are more consistent and reliable
Their walking team has been very consistent in the last few years when both male and female walkers medaled in major competitions. Liu Hong, last year, has been fruitful one that she took the world record and world champion. This year, good news was that she could be the bronze medalist in 2012 Olympics where she finished 4th in 2008 and 2012, after russian walker's medal was stripped due to doping. Their female throwers are always among the consistent ones when they have been top 8 finishers in Worlds.
3. Steady improvements in men
Men's long jump is one of the first to mention. China has been producing 8m jumpers since 1990s but not many can make it to the podium until 2014 World indoors where Li Jinzhe won silver. This has sparked a series of great performances in Chinese jumpers when Wang Jianan, still a junior, won bronze in 2015 Worlds and Huang Changzhou won bronze in 2016 World indoors. They have formed a force in long jump at world level. Other jumping events are also worth to mention including Zhang Guowei's high jump (silver in Worlds last year), Xue Changrui's pole vault, Dong Bin's triple jump (gold in World indoors and 17.41m Asian record this year). There was a breakthrough in men's javelin in 2014 when Zhao Qinggang threw a stunning 89.15m, Asian record. Since then, he was plagued with injuries.
4. Their results seem to be more believable nowadays but you never know
The results produced by Chinese athletes in athletics seem to be more accepting in general by international community partly because of their increased international exposure. The major doping cases for national athletes recently including Lu Huihui and Zhang Wenxiu. Lu served her ban and rose to silver medalist in last year Worlds in women's javelin. Zhang was found positive after Asian Games in 2014 but later proved that the banned substance was due to food contamination and her ban was lifted in 2015. She also won a silver in 2015 Worlds. Early this year, doping case of Ma's army in 1990s was finally exposed and the runners confirmed their doping in a letter written to the author who wrote a book about Ma's army back in 1995 with their signatures. The letter was deemed to be too sensitive at the time of publish and was removed from the book. It was only exposed later last year that people got to know such letter was written. My take for Wang Junxia was that she was a talented runner and got to a very high level after doping and achieved a lot in single year. She left Ma for the other coach, Mao Dezhen in 1995 and trained for 1996 Olympics. I think she stopped doping by the time she left Ma but the foundation she had built previously was still in her. That could explain why she still managed to win a gold and a silver in 1996 Games but the times she ran were way too slow compared to her world record performances. Currently, World athletics world is in a turmoil on doping where Russia is the main character. If China does increase their doping cases, more focus will be on them.
5. Veterans retirement and comeback
Liu Xiang's retirement is one of the highlights in the last 3 years. He has achieved so much and so consistently over the last decade from 2001 to 2012. He has gained so much respect from his opponents. The domestic comments on him are a little harsh that they do not realize what he has achieved is so unprecedented in China. I also understand that his falls both happened in Olympics, which were really unfortunate. A must mention for his comeback is Han Yucheng, who has qualified Olympics at 38. Noticeably, he qualifies for one of the most grueling events in athletics, 50km walk. He is definitely the oldest Chinese male athletics representative (Li Meisu should be oldest female). Good luck to him and wishing him a good placing in the Olympics!!
Swimming:
1. Sun Yang's spiral
Sun Yang has been a flagship for brand new "Chinese swimming" after a series of doping events in 1990s. After he became the first gold medalist in Chinese male swimmer, his career has been spiced up with numerous herbs and spices. After his success in 2012 Olympics, he has been secretly accused by his teammates of his hostility towards his teammates. Even though this accusation has not been substantiated in the media, his current training status may have explained: he seems to train alone with his own team without other swimmers. Minor out-of-competition issues include his love affair and driving without a licence in 2013. He still managed to win three world titles in 2013 and two Asian Games titles in 2014. However, it was his Asian Games titles which were controversial that he was reported to serve a secret 3-month ban from doping. This definitely made the international swimming community feel suspicious of the way Chinese swimming association was handling his case. He, himself, also quickly got past his doping and won 2 more world titles in 2015 with new controversies. He was reported to be in a fight with a Brazilian female swimmer and pulled out from 1500m free at the last minute. There was also news quoting that before the race, he was seen to be very frustrated with a couple of Chinese officials in the changing room. All these behaviors have made him a bad name and he got a * behind him whenever he was mentioned in Swimvortex.
2. Rise of Ning Zetao
I first spotted this name in 2008-2009 but never thought too much about him when I remember he was a finalist in 200m IM at Chinese National Games in 2009. Then he swum a 49s in 2010 or 2011 and I noticed later he was banned due to Clenbuterol. After his success in 2014 Asian Games and swum a couples of 47s, his doping past was inevitably dug up like President election campaign. He later explained that during the time he was still a junior member in Navy, his meals solely rely on the food supplied by the team canteen and he supplemented his meals secretly by adding luncheon meats bought from the local shops. In Kazan Worlds last year, he became the first Asian male to win gold in sprinting freestyle event. But his name, similar to Sun Yang, was tainted with an * in Swimvortex reports. In addition to his success, his good East Asian look gains him even more fame and also pressure on him. Like the Chinese nationals this year, tickets are sell-out due to his presence but his IBS has kept him from action after a 47.96s in semis.
3. Rise of Chinese male swimmers
The quality of Chinese male swimmers are improving over the last decade. It is hard to believe that they only produce their first sub-50s swimmer in 100m free back in 2005 and now, they have 1 sub-48s and a couple of sub-49s swimmers. On the other hand, Zhejiang has been contributing a lot in the Chinese male swimming. Their first wave was Yu Cheng and Wu Peng in early 2000s. Yu and Wu lowered men's 1500m free to 15:15 level in 2001. Then Yu further lowered to 15:10. Then it came to Beijing's Zhang Lin and Sun Yang (also from Zhejiang) who brought to the current level. Wu Peng has been multiple medalist in 200m fly at worlds although he failed to win a single Olympic medal. He also helped improve the national record from 1:58 to 1:54. Then it came Xu Jiayu and Li Zhuhao, both Zhejiang swimmers, who has been swimming world class times in recent years. Worth to mention for contributions are Beijing's Chen Zuo together with Zhang Lin and Guangdong's Zhou Jiawei. Chen is the ice-breaker in 100m free. He dipped below 50s in 2005 and then 49s in 2008. While his improving pace did not keep up with the fast pace in the international swimming, he has been a consistent performer from 2001 to 2013. Zhang Lin is another milestone for Chinese swimming when he is the first world record holder (800m free in 2009 Rome) and first Olympic medalist (400m free in 2008) for Chinese male swimmer. Before him, the best result is Jiang Chengji's 4th (both in 50m free and 100m fly) in 1996 Atlanta. His career has been cut short due to his lung problem that compromises his endurance. Zhou Jiawei, won his first national title in 100m fly back in 2000, but did not make the Olympic team. He also did not swim in the next 2 editions until London, where he got to swim his first and also his last Olympics. Like Chen on the record, he is the first Chinese male who dipped below 53s and then below 52s. At 33, he still swam a 52.44s recently in Chinese nationals (3rd) where he wanted to qualify for one more Olympics (but failed).
4. Swan songs for Jiao Liuyang and Liu Zige
Since 2008, Jiao and Liu have been the butterfly duo who has taken turns to win most of the major titles/medals in women's 200m fly: 2008 Olympic gold and silver; 2009 Worlds silver; 2011 Worlds gold; 2012 Olympic gold and 2013 Worlds gold. Their monopoly is over and now they both are facing different health problems. Jiao has been battling gastric problem since 2012 while Liu has her nagging problem in shoulders. Jiao's recovery is slow but never officially announced her retirement while Liu swam Olympic trial recently and finished 5th in 2:08, a decent time, but was not fast enough to qualify. She was upset and cried after she failed to qualify for her third Olympics.
4. Suspicion
There are more * on Chinese swimmers, China has attempted to clean up their sports after doping scandal in 1990s. However, there have been consistent doping cases not only on the provincial swimmers but also national team swimmers. This include Wu Yanyan (former 200m IM world record holder), Ouyang Kunpeng (former top male backstroke swimmer), Li Zhesi (freestyle leg in 4x100m medley gold medal team in 2009 Worlds), Sun Yang (Olympic champion) and Ning Zetao (World champion). Ning is a little different from the rest that he was caught way before he swam fast times. Lately, 2 more from last year and 3 more from this year were caught. Wang Lizhuo and An Jiaobao are the 2 who were caught last year on Clenbuterol and got away with warnings and fines. This infuriates the international swimming community and their recent showing in Nationals, breaking records and qualifying for Olympics did not help the situation. Furthermore, the 3 Hunan swimmers that have been reported doping could also be the top national swimmers, if I am not wrong. Their absence in Nationals has deepened my suspicion for these three swimmers with surnames starting with Li, Huang and Yang. One of the Swimvortex comments mentioned Zhejiang's swimmers are believed to be cleanest and the worst are those from central provinces and Liaoning. I totally agree and Shanghai has also been on clean record after 2000 except for one Clenbuterol case in 2005.
Athletics:
1. Breakthroughs in sprinting
As one of the most fascinating events on track, Chinese has been hoping for their first sub-10 sprinter. It finally happened last year when Su Bingtian ran 9.99s. More convincing is that he ran once in US and once in Worlds. Their breakthrough in sprinting is unexpected, provided that their national record before 2013 was 10.16s. In 2013, Zhang Peimeng was first to take off, running 10.0s couple of times. This also inspired Su to level off. The highlight in 2013 was Zhang who ran 10s flat in Worlds semis. In 2014, their times were not as fast but still on par. Su has been a more consistent one when he was came 4th in 60m at World Indoors. The highlight was 37.99s Asian record win in 4x100m at Asian Games. 2015 was a fruitful year for Su where he is the first sub-10s for East Asian and was able to repeat the feat in Worlds when Beijing was the host. Their 4x100m team won a history silver in the meet and set another Asian record 37.92s in the heats. In 2016, his form has been better and already tied Asian 60m record at 6.50s in recent World Indoors. His younger team mate, Xie Zhenye, who is more a 200m specialist, also ran 6.53s in the final.
2. Their results are more consistent and reliable
Their walking team has been very consistent in the last few years when both male and female walkers medaled in major competitions. Liu Hong, last year, has been fruitful one that she took the world record and world champion. This year, good news was that she could be the bronze medalist in 2012 Olympics where she finished 4th in 2008 and 2012, after russian walker's medal was stripped due to doping. Their female throwers are always among the consistent ones when they have been top 8 finishers in Worlds.
3. Steady improvements in men
Men's long jump is one of the first to mention. China has been producing 8m jumpers since 1990s but not many can make it to the podium until 2014 World indoors where Li Jinzhe won silver. This has sparked a series of great performances in Chinese jumpers when Wang Jianan, still a junior, won bronze in 2015 Worlds and Huang Changzhou won bronze in 2016 World indoors. They have formed a force in long jump at world level. Other jumping events are also worth to mention including Zhang Guowei's high jump (silver in Worlds last year), Xue Changrui's pole vault, Dong Bin's triple jump (gold in World indoors and 17.41m Asian record this year). There was a breakthrough in men's javelin in 2014 when Zhao Qinggang threw a stunning 89.15m, Asian record. Since then, he was plagued with injuries.
4. Their results seem to be more believable nowadays but you never know
The results produced by Chinese athletes in athletics seem to be more accepting in general by international community partly because of their increased international exposure. The major doping cases for national athletes recently including Lu Huihui and Zhang Wenxiu. Lu served her ban and rose to silver medalist in last year Worlds in women's javelin. Zhang was found positive after Asian Games in 2014 but later proved that the banned substance was due to food contamination and her ban was lifted in 2015. She also won a silver in 2015 Worlds. Early this year, doping case of Ma's army in 1990s was finally exposed and the runners confirmed their doping in a letter written to the author who wrote a book about Ma's army back in 1995 with their signatures. The letter was deemed to be too sensitive at the time of publish and was removed from the book. It was only exposed later last year that people got to know such letter was written. My take for Wang Junxia was that she was a talented runner and got to a very high level after doping and achieved a lot in single year. She left Ma for the other coach, Mao Dezhen in 1995 and trained for 1996 Olympics. I think she stopped doping by the time she left Ma but the foundation she had built previously was still in her. That could explain why she still managed to win a gold and a silver in 1996 Games but the times she ran were way too slow compared to her world record performances. Currently, World athletics world is in a turmoil on doping where Russia is the main character. If China does increase their doping cases, more focus will be on them.
5. Veterans retirement and comeback
Liu Xiang's retirement is one of the highlights in the last 3 years. He has achieved so much and so consistently over the last decade from 2001 to 2012. He has gained so much respect from his opponents. The domestic comments on him are a little harsh that they do not realize what he has achieved is so unprecedented in China. I also understand that his falls both happened in Olympics, which were really unfortunate. A must mention for his comeback is Han Yucheng, who has qualified Olympics at 38. Noticeably, he qualifies for one of the most grueling events in athletics, 50km walk. He is definitely the oldest Chinese male athletics representative (Li Meisu should be oldest female). Good luck to him and wishing him a good placing in the Olympics!!
Online results for Chinese swimming and athletics
Results for Chinese swimming and athletics can all be found online:
Athletics: http://www.athletics.org.cn/search/index.html
Swimming: http://www.swimat.com
Athletics: http://www.athletics.org.cn/search/index.html
Swimming: http://www.swimat.com
Monday, February 04, 2013
Sun Yang seems to be in trouble
After Sun Yang's great success to make Olympic history for Chinese male swimmers, he seemed to get himself into a pot of boiling water. About a month after Olympics, he quickly hopped into National university Games for golds and the local media claimed he pretended to be big gun and refused to take photos. Later, the media revealed that his national teammates including Wang Shun, Li Yunqi, Shao Yiwen and Hao Yun criticized Sun behind his back in the Weibo (Chinese twitter). Last month, he was training in Yunnan swimming camp and had a dispute with 2 reporters on the photographing issue. The reporters claimed they were forced to delete their photos from their camera by Sun and his companion whereas Sun and his companion had his own say. Only recently, another news broke when he wanted to change coach and almost at the same time, announced he is in relationship with a girl who worked as a steward on the plane that he boarded to Australia for training camp in 2010. Whether he can make his flight to Australia for training camp this month is still unknown before he sorts things out with his coach and the officials in the provincial team. Behind all the prizes, praises and reputations, it comes all kinds of challenges and resistance for him to move forward to become a one-hit star or one of the greatest swimmers.
Saturday, February 02, 2013
The 2 swimmers I know admitted their doping offence...
So far, I only learnt from the news that only two swimmers admitted their drug cheat after many years: Huang Xiaomin and Xiong Guoming. Huang, from Heilongjiang province, is silver medalist of women's 200m breaststroke at 1988 Seoul Games. She failed to qualify in 1992 Barcelona Olympics when she lost to Lou Xia, from Zhejiang province in 100m breaststroke at Olympic trial. Lou represented at Olympics and later had an even greater achievement that she discovered Ye Shiwen, Olympic champion in London Games. Later she sent Ye to train under her husband, Xu Guoyi in the provincial and then national team. Back to Huang. Huang is one of the 1st batch of golden flowers, alongside Lin Li, Yang Wenyi, Zhuang Yong, Wang Xiaohong and Qian Hong. Let's look at their "now & then" pictures (top left: Zhuang Yong, Middle left: Yang Wenyi, Bottom left: Qian Hong, Top right: Wang Xiaohong and Middle right: Lin Li).
These five golden flowers also appeared in Seoul Games with Huang Xiaomin in which Yang and Zhuang medaled in sprint freestyle events while Qian won a bronze in 100m fly. They had greater success at 1992 Games when they contributed 4 golds and 5 silvers and also 2 world records. Most of them retired after 1993 National Games except Lin Li who still swam until 1996 Atlanta Olympics in which she won bronze in 200m IM. Huang also retired after 1993 National Games. She later admitted to German media she did use drugs in her swimming career and now, she is coaching in Korea. Since the rest of the golden flowers were not tested positive in their career, one can say they are clean and others will always have doubts on their splendid performances in the golden era. Nevertheless, these five flowers are all successful women in their lives now.
Huang admitted to the Western media so it should be quite well-known in the swimming world. Most of banned swimmers and athletes from athletics never admitted taking illegal substances, including Lu Bin, Wu Yanyan and Sun Yingjie. In 2005, Xiong Guoming, on the other hand, said," Yes, I did take the drug" in a local interview (http://sports.sohu.com/20050816/n226688229.shtml). However, it did not seem to make any waves in the Chinese media, probably because he is just a banned swimmer in the past and never a Olympic or Worlds finalist. Xiong, from Shanghai, was a rising star who won multiple 1993 National Games and 1994 Asian Games titles. After Asian Games, he was tested positive and banned for 2 years. In 1997, he was back to win 400m IM in National Games by setting a new Asian record, 4:19.03, which should be within top 5 in the world in that year. In the following year, he went back to the Asian Games pool and won 200m IM. In one more year, he was on the news again that he was tested positive for clenbuterol. The interesting part is that he only admitted the 1st cheat and attributed the 2nd case to grilled pig liver, a common organ food in Chinese cuisine. He believed the pig liver is the source of the clenbuterol which has been used widely in raising pigs in China. This is the similar reason for Ouyang Kunpeng's reason in 2008 when he claimed he ate a lot of barbaque meat before the test. CSA also thinks that it can be a serious issue and has strict rules for all their 2012 Olympic swimmers not to eat meat outside and only eat the meat imported from their reliable oversea supplier.
These five golden flowers also appeared in Seoul Games with Huang Xiaomin in which Yang and Zhuang medaled in sprint freestyle events while Qian won a bronze in 100m fly. They had greater success at 1992 Games when they contributed 4 golds and 5 silvers and also 2 world records. Most of them retired after 1993 National Games except Lin Li who still swam until 1996 Atlanta Olympics in which she won bronze in 200m IM. Huang also retired after 1993 National Games. She later admitted to German media she did use drugs in her swimming career and now, she is coaching in Korea. Since the rest of the golden flowers were not tested positive in their career, one can say they are clean and others will always have doubts on their splendid performances in the golden era. Nevertheless, these five flowers are all successful women in their lives now.
Huang admitted to the Western media so it should be quite well-known in the swimming world. Most of banned swimmers and athletes from athletics never admitted taking illegal substances, including Lu Bin, Wu Yanyan and Sun Yingjie. In 2005, Xiong Guoming, on the other hand, said," Yes, I did take the drug" in a local interview (http://sports.sohu.com/20050816/n226688229.shtml). However, it did not seem to make any waves in the Chinese media, probably because he is just a banned swimmer in the past and never a Olympic or Worlds finalist. Xiong, from Shanghai, was a rising star who won multiple 1993 National Games and 1994 Asian Games titles. After Asian Games, he was tested positive and banned for 2 years. In 1997, he was back to win 400m IM in National Games by setting a new Asian record, 4:19.03, which should be within top 5 in the world in that year. In the following year, he went back to the Asian Games pool and won 200m IM. In one more year, he was on the news again that he was tested positive for clenbuterol. The interesting part is that he only admitted the 1st cheat and attributed the 2nd case to grilled pig liver, a common organ food in Chinese cuisine. He believed the pig liver is the source of the clenbuterol which has been used widely in raising pigs in China. This is the similar reason for Ouyang Kunpeng's reason in 2008 when he claimed he ate a lot of barbaque meat before the test. CSA also thinks that it can be a serious issue and has strict rules for all their 2012 Olympic swimmers not to eat meat outside and only eat the meat imported from their reliable oversea supplier.
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