WC ended...

So, finally, World championships ended after a week of competition. China received a silver and many fifths this time. After the last blog, China received another 3 fifths and their results are impressive. First is women 400m hurdle which is really a breakthrough for China. For this event, China has no place in the world; even in Asia, they lost the last 2 Asian Games to Kazah Torshina. The Asian record co-held by Han Ching (in 1993) and Song Yingnan (in 2001) were set in Chinese national Games (CNG), the results of which cannot reflect the true status of Chinese track and field in the world. Huang Xiaoxiao, who was the runner-up in 2001 CNG did not catch much attention of me because she just disappeared in 2002 like many athletes did after the CNG. That result was also a former world junior record (55.15s). In 2003, she did more competitions and won the mini CNG, City Games with a time near her pb and she also won the flat 400m (51.93s) showing she also has some speed in her. She seems to do better and better thereafter and she qualified to the 2nd round in the Olympics in 2004 with her 1st sub-55s time 54.83s. In early season of 2004, I can tell she wants to achieve something bigger than a national champ or Asian Champ. In domestic competitions, those elite athletes only use up 50% of their power to qualify. Huang seems to be a little different that she also wants to run a bit fast in the heats. What I think is that she tries to adapt the furious competition in those big championships. Finally, she paid off and becomes the 1st Chinese placed in top 8 in this event in any major championships. She also set a pb 54.37s in semi final which placed her 2nd in all time list for Chinese in this event. Asian record is just a matter of time. She also made a point that I so agree with. She said most of the Chinese athletes are not professional enough and they might not 100% love what they are doing. Here, it is a Q. If you don't have a motive, there will be no drive. If you don't all love what you are doing, you are not giving all you have.

Zhou Chunxiu finally got up to her standard finishing 5th in women Marathon. She did so many good times in these years but she just owes herself a chance to prove she also can do well in major competition. 2:24:12, which I think is the best time a Chinese ever did in major competition. I think in this event, the marks that Ma's army runners had left have faded away. Sun Yingjie, Zhou, Wei Yanan are the ones to watch in the near future. I was just wondering why Wei is not racing. Is she having the doping problem again? Hope not.

Finally, Xing broke her pb in 5000m and finished 5th behind those Ethopian girls again.