3 Asian GP finally comes to the end. Some good, some disappointing. The highlight is Xie Limei's 14.73m Asian Record in Bangkok (1st leg). Meng Yan started his season with couple of 49 sec runs (49.47 and 49.50) in men's 400m hurdle and dnf in the last leg. Wen Yongyi won twice in 100m. The best time was 10.36 in the 2nd leg. He ran pb last year in Asian GP at 10.30, still a circuit record.
Worth to mention is Wang Liangyu won all 3 legs of men's 400m and set a pb at 45.95s in the 1st leg, 1st sub-46s mark. The leading Asian time so far is Liu Xiaosheng's 45.79s. Asian Games champion, Li Yanxi suffered a setback who lost all 3 competitions. He only got a bronze in 2nd leg with 16.70m, 5 cm less than his SB. Wu Tao, 2002 Asian Games champion in men's discus, seemed to lose his form tremendously. No mark beyond 60m was recorded by him in all 3 legs. The best was 58++m.
On women side, Xie won all 3 competitions followed by Li Qian who set a pb at 13.88m in 2nd leg. 10th national game winner, Qin Wangping only managed to run 11.8 in the 1st leg of 100m and 4x100m quartet all lost to Thai. The best time was 44.07s. On the other hand, 4x400m quartet (Chen Jingwen, Tang Xiaoyin, Li Xueji and Wang Xiaoxiao) won 3 legs with 3:32+. Asian Games winner, Li Ling also won 3 competitions in shotput and her best was 18.68m.
From these 3 legs, highlights from other countries include 2.30m in high jump by Kazah, and 17.04m in triple jump by Indian.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Rebounds
Take a glance in world top 20 in track and field, I can see some rebounds from Chinese athletes. 1st, men's jump events. After last year's 2.30m by Zhang Shufeng, it finally broke the spell of breaking the 2.30m mark since 1998's Zhou Zhongge's 2.30m mark. It followed by 2.32m when Huang Haiqiang won world junior. In 2007, Huang got over 2.30m after more than half year of injuries.
More surprises are from triple jump and long jump. We can see the rising power of triple jump like Li Yanxi, Gu Junjie and Zhu Shujing who had 17+ jump over last few years. This year is a breakthrough. New 17+ jumpers are introduced: Zhong Minwei and Wu Bo. Zhong jumped 17.27m in Zou Zhenxian national record (17.32m) challenge meet, best jump since 1995's 17.30m by Zeng Lizhi. He won bronze at last year's world junior at 16.29m and set pb in city games preliminary at 16.81m. Wu Bo leapt 17.03m in the same meet. This year's result is the best since 1999's 16.89m by Gu at 15 of age. So now, we have five 17m jumpers. Li: 17.15m, Gu: 17.26m and 17.11m (2007) and Zhu: 17.03m. The best years are coming and NR and AR (17.34m) should be wiped sooner and later. Zou should be happy since the NR was set in 1981, a year that all the challengers for this year's meet were not even born yet.
Rebounds in long jump is another surprises. This event has been going down over the years since 1990s and there is no leading athlete standing out in the crowd. Hunan's Zhou Can, a consistent 8m jumper over years, at his 28 and have a pb of 8.11m (twice) finally went one step up to achieve a new pb at 8.22m in recent world Champ. trial. Zhang Xiaoyi and Li Runrun both jumped 8.09m and another athlete jumped 8.04m earlier. Zhang had set Asian Junior Record at 8.17m beating the previous record, compatriot Wang Cheng's 8.16m last year. Although he was no. 1 in world junior list, he failed to materialize in world junior and only got bronze. Four 8m jumpers so far are really exciting.
More surprises are from triple jump and long jump. We can see the rising power of triple jump like Li Yanxi, Gu Junjie and Zhu Shujing who had 17+ jump over last few years. This year is a breakthrough. New 17+ jumpers are introduced: Zhong Minwei and Wu Bo. Zhong jumped 17.27m in Zou Zhenxian national record (17.32m) challenge meet, best jump since 1995's 17.30m by Zeng Lizhi. He won bronze at last year's world junior at 16.29m and set pb in city games preliminary at 16.81m. Wu Bo leapt 17.03m in the same meet. This year's result is the best since 1999's 16.89m by Gu at 15 of age. So now, we have five 17m jumpers. Li: 17.15m, Gu: 17.26m and 17.11m (2007) and Zhu: 17.03m. The best years are coming and NR and AR (17.34m) should be wiped sooner and later. Zou should be happy since the NR was set in 1981, a year that all the challengers for this year's meet were not even born yet.
Rebounds in long jump is another surprises. This event has been going down over the years since 1990s and there is no leading athlete standing out in the crowd. Hunan's Zhou Can, a consistent 8m jumper over years, at his 28 and have a pb of 8.11m (twice) finally went one step up to achieve a new pb at 8.22m in recent world Champ. trial. Zhang Xiaoyi and Li Runrun both jumped 8.09m and another athlete jumped 8.04m earlier. Zhang had set Asian Junior Record at 8.17m beating the previous record, compatriot Wang Cheng's 8.16m last year. Although he was no. 1 in world junior list, he failed to materialize in world junior and only got bronze. Four 8m jumpers so far are really exciting.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Chinese traditional event is being eroded away
Since China was unable to win any medal in men's discus last year in Asian Game, this long lasting traditional event for China in Asian Athletics is losing their ground. Here rises the West Asians from India and Iran. Iranian Ehsan Hadidi first took over Asian record in 2005 Incheon Asian Championships by 10 cm (65.25m) from China's Li Shaojie's 65.15m set at 1996 Olympic trial. After a year setback, Hadidi improved to 67.88m in May 25 and 67.95m in Minsk yesterday (Jun 11). This mark can rank him top 8 in the world this year. On the other hand, US-based Indian Vikas Gowda had a throw of 64.96m this year, a new national record.
China only earn 1 medal in all throwing event (bronze javelin) in Asian Games last year compared to 3 golds in 1994, 1 gold in 1998 and 2 golds in 2002. West and central Asian countries are eating away China's ground. This is because there is no breakthrough in technique over the years. By the look of the results, we can take a glance of why their improvement is so little. In shotput, it takes 15 years to slash the national record from 19.78 (Ma Yongfeng) to 20.15m (Zhang Qi). Since that 20.15m, Zhang seems to suffer the national games symdrone that his results have been going backwards since. He is even absent in the recent World Champ trial. Most of the top domestic throwers wander between 18.5 and low 19m. Before 2000, 20m mark was not prevalent in Asia but India, Qatar and Kazahstan have produced several 20-m throwers since. In discus, Li Shaojie won the 1998 Asian Games and held Asian record from 1996 to 2005. The previous record was also held Chinese Ma Wenge at 65.06m. Over more than 10 years, only 2 throws from Chinese fled over 64m mark. One was Li again. Another was from new generation, Wu Tao. I guess he finds quite difficult to hold this ground for China because opponents over Asia are improving so fast. He won 2002 Asian Games at 60.76m and finished at 5th or 6th last year Asian Games. Nevertheless, his 59-60m level is enough to top in domestic competition since there is not much challenge domestically. About 59.5m, Wu once more won the World Champ Trial. Hammer throw is the 1st ground to lose. After Soviet Union was dissociated in 1992, a few (4 or 5 or 6) countries from the former Union merge to Asia. As usual, although these countries are not as strong as the big brother like Russia and Ukraine, they still produce many fine athletes since 1992. World Champion in men's hammer in 1993, Anxxxv (forgot his name) definitely has no problem to govern this continent. 5-time Asian Champion, Bi Zhong who held the previous Asian record 77.06m is not up to Anxxxv's standard. Furthermore, Bi's normal level is around 70-74m which makes the ground so easy to be swallow. After Anxxxv's retirement, it does not mean the reclaim of the power. Japan's Murofushi's rise again effortlessly pushes away Chinese throwers. Over more than 15 years, except Bi, no Chinese is able to throw over 74m. It is the reason why Chinese is so weak in this event. Javelin is last event to fall. First, Zhang Lianbian, then, Li Rongxiang. Although there was a period of time when Voronin from Uzkbestan has a furious competition in the mid 1990s, Li finally took the command after 1998 until 2005. In 2006, Li, at 34, start to be inflicted by injuries and his results are going downwards. Instead, throwers from Korea and Japan are rising. Park Jae-Myong won the Asian Games title last year and held national record of 82++, not far away from Li's 84.28m set in 2000. Li, recently competed in Cananda and only managed to go 57m. Anyway, this event is having better prospect than others. Young generation like Chen Qi had some 80m throws in recent years but he is still not very consistent. Qin Qiang just improved from 78.11 to 80+ in World Trial. He is only the one to see.
China only earn 1 medal in all throwing event (bronze javelin) in Asian Games last year compared to 3 golds in 1994, 1 gold in 1998 and 2 golds in 2002. West and central Asian countries are eating away China's ground. This is because there is no breakthrough in technique over the years. By the look of the results, we can take a glance of why their improvement is so little. In shotput, it takes 15 years to slash the national record from 19.78 (Ma Yongfeng) to 20.15m (Zhang Qi). Since that 20.15m, Zhang seems to suffer the national games symdrone that his results have been going backwards since. He is even absent in the recent World Champ trial. Most of the top domestic throwers wander between 18.5 and low 19m. Before 2000, 20m mark was not prevalent in Asia but India, Qatar and Kazahstan have produced several 20-m throwers since. In discus, Li Shaojie won the 1998 Asian Games and held Asian record from 1996 to 2005. The previous record was also held Chinese Ma Wenge at 65.06m. Over more than 10 years, only 2 throws from Chinese fled over 64m mark. One was Li again. Another was from new generation, Wu Tao. I guess he finds quite difficult to hold this ground for China because opponents over Asia are improving so fast. He won 2002 Asian Games at 60.76m and finished at 5th or 6th last year Asian Games. Nevertheless, his 59-60m level is enough to top in domestic competition since there is not much challenge domestically. About 59.5m, Wu once more won the World Champ Trial. Hammer throw is the 1st ground to lose. After Soviet Union was dissociated in 1992, a few (4 or 5 or 6) countries from the former Union merge to Asia. As usual, although these countries are not as strong as the big brother like Russia and Ukraine, they still produce many fine athletes since 1992. World Champion in men's hammer in 1993, Anxxxv (forgot his name) definitely has no problem to govern this continent. 5-time Asian Champion, Bi Zhong who held the previous Asian record 77.06m is not up to Anxxxv's standard. Furthermore, Bi's normal level is around 70-74m which makes the ground so easy to be swallow. After Anxxxv's retirement, it does not mean the reclaim of the power. Japan's Murofushi's rise again effortlessly pushes away Chinese throwers. Over more than 15 years, except Bi, no Chinese is able to throw over 74m. It is the reason why Chinese is so weak in this event. Javelin is last event to fall. First, Zhang Lianbian, then, Li Rongxiang. Although there was a period of time when Voronin from Uzkbestan has a furious competition in the mid 1990s, Li finally took the command after 1998 until 2005. In 2006, Li, at 34, start to be inflicted by injuries and his results are going downwards. Instead, throwers from Korea and Japan are rising. Park Jae-Myong won the Asian Games title last year and held national record of 82++, not far away from Li's 84.28m set in 2000. Li, recently competed in Cananda and only managed to go 57m. Anyway, this event is having better prospect than others. Young generation like Chen Qi had some 80m throws in recent years but he is still not very consistent. Qin Qiang just improved from 78.11 to 80+ in World Trial. He is only the one to see.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Qi Haifeng, Chinese steel man in new century
Before Y2k, no Chinese men got past 8000-barrier in men's Decathlon which is a 10-discipline event lasting for 2 days in major competitions. In 2001 Universade, the miracle happened when a 18-year-old Liaoning athlete won bronze by accumulating 8019 points in 2-day competition. He is Qi Haifeng and this results broke Gong Guohua's 10-year-old national record (7924). He improved very fast from 8019 to 8021 in National Games. He improved to 8030 in 2002 national champ then to 8041 in 2002 Asian Games to win gold against current Olympic silver medalist, Asian record holder, Karpov of Kazahstan. He finished 7th in 2003 world champ at new height of 8126. He had a setback year in 2004 when he had two 7900 competitions (one in Arles and one in Olympics to finish 18th). In 2005, he achieved a new pb of 8290 in Gotzis but since then he suffered foot injuries and did not perform up to par. He won national Games in 2005 and national champ in 2006 but his points went around 7900. Here is his progress:
2006 7940 Shijiazhuang 07 08 2006
2005 8290 Götzis 29 05 2005
2004 7960 Arles 06 06 2004
2003 8126 Paris Saint-Denis 27 08 2003
2002 8041 Busan 10 10 2002
2001 8021 Guangzhou 22 11 2001
2000 7430 Tianjin 04 05 2000
1999 7437 Xi'an 17 09 1999
Here is some analysis of each discipline and my opinions:
100m: Qi only ran once sub-11 seconds (10.87). Consistent 10.70-10.90 should be aimed.
400m: Consistent between 48.70 and 49.60 (pb is 48.72). He needs to run low 48 seconds to get ahead.
1500m: Once being trained in Ma's army, his time does not seem to advantage him a lot. 4:23.22 was his best and dated back in 2001. Even Roman Sebrle (world record holder), had a better pb than him when 1500m is claimed to be his weakest and uncompetitive event. After 2003, he never had a run below 4:30 which he needs to work on to get back his lost trait.
110m hurdle: Another event he is going slower and slower. 14.40 is his best in 2003. Since then, 2005's 14.62 was the best he can manage. It's hard to run like Liu Xiang's 12.88 or even 13.50 but low 14 seconds between 14 and 14.20 should be the target.
high jump: Consistent 2-m jumper, the best was 2.06m in 2002. He wandered at 2.00 to 2.03 in these few years. He needs to be consistent at 2.05m or higher. Domestically, I saw a young decathlte jumping 2.09m last year. A warning.
pole vault: another not improving event. A 4.60-4.80m pole vaulter. His best 4.80m was dated back 5 years ago. Anyway, 4.80m is decent enough, I guess.
long jump: Another tricky event. His best stood at 7.52m in 2002 and recent efforts linger between 7.30 and 7.40m. Quite a lot of top decathltes like Kapov or Serble have pbs over 8 meters, already top class in the world considering the event alone. This event also becomes their killing weapons to pull their points up ahead of others. Qi got to do something about it.
Shotput: still lagging behind. Never threw beyond 14m. His best was 13.73 in 2005. Got to improve at least half to 1 meter to push up the points.
Discus: Not too bad. A- is the grade I give compared to other decathltes. Having had a pb at 48.57m, I guess he can extend his efforts further in this event.
Javelin: The discipline I guess he intends to improve in the past few years. From around 61 to 64.53m in 2005 and 63.07m last year. He also needs to improve a couple meters to like 65 to 68m to be in the top positions.
Just in April, Yu Bin, his major domestic oppenent from Si chuan seemed to start his move towards Olympics when he produced 7824 in early season. Another sign for him to work hard.
2006 7940 Shijiazhuang 07 08 2006
2005 8290 Götzis 29 05 2005
2004 7960 Arles 06 06 2004
2003 8126 Paris Saint-Denis 27 08 2003
2002 8041 Busan 10 10 2002
2001 8021 Guangzhou 22 11 2001
2000 7430 Tianjin 04 05 2000
1999 7437 Xi'an 17 09 1999
Here is some analysis of each discipline and my opinions:
100m: Qi only ran once sub-11 seconds (10.87). Consistent 10.70-10.90 should be aimed.
400m: Consistent between 48.70 and 49.60 (pb is 48.72). He needs to run low 48 seconds to get ahead.
1500m: Once being trained in Ma's army, his time does not seem to advantage him a lot. 4:23.22 was his best and dated back in 2001. Even Roman Sebrle (world record holder), had a better pb than him when 1500m is claimed to be his weakest and uncompetitive event. After 2003, he never had a run below 4:30 which he needs to work on to get back his lost trait.
110m hurdle: Another event he is going slower and slower. 14.40 is his best in 2003. Since then, 2005's 14.62 was the best he can manage. It's hard to run like Liu Xiang's 12.88 or even 13.50 but low 14 seconds between 14 and 14.20 should be the target.
high jump: Consistent 2-m jumper, the best was 2.06m in 2002. He wandered at 2.00 to 2.03 in these few years. He needs to be consistent at 2.05m or higher. Domestically, I saw a young decathlte jumping 2.09m last year. A warning.
pole vault: another not improving event. A 4.60-4.80m pole vaulter. His best 4.80m was dated back 5 years ago. Anyway, 4.80m is decent enough, I guess.
long jump: Another tricky event. His best stood at 7.52m in 2002 and recent efforts linger between 7.30 and 7.40m. Quite a lot of top decathltes like Kapov or Serble have pbs over 8 meters, already top class in the world considering the event alone. This event also becomes their killing weapons to pull their points up ahead of others. Qi got to do something about it.
Shotput: still lagging behind. Never threw beyond 14m. His best was 13.73 in 2005. Got to improve at least half to 1 meter to push up the points.
Discus: Not too bad. A- is the grade I give compared to other decathltes. Having had a pb at 48.57m, I guess he can extend his efforts further in this event.
Javelin: The discipline I guess he intends to improve in the past few years. From around 61 to 64.53m in 2005 and 63.07m last year. He also needs to improve a couple meters to like 65 to 68m to be in the top positions.
Just in April, Yu Bin, his major domestic oppenent from Si chuan seemed to start his move towards Olympics when he produced 7824 in early season. Another sign for him to work hard.
Chinese swimming doesn't seem to have a lead
Having produced a heaps of world records in 1990s although most of them are suspicious to the Western world, China seems to come to a dilemma that they don't know how to improve their swimmers to survive fast-growing international swimming scene.
Recently, a few examples triggers these thoughts:
1. Qi Hui, former women's 200m breastroke world record holder (2:22.99 in 2002) had a really nightmare in just-wrapped-up world championships after she was trying a new training method: "living at altitudes, training at sea level" which has been claimed to use successfully in the West. Her coach, Ye Jin, tried this new method on her team including world champ representatives Qi, Qu Jingyu and Lai Zhongjian. Among them, Qi's response to the new method was the worst when she only managed to swim 2:19.05 in 200m IM heats while her pb came from last year 2:11.92 and she has constantly been swimming 2:13, 2:14 over the last 5 years. After that, she swam around 2:30 in the heats and semi final in her pet event, 200m breaststroke. Based on her form, this must have taken so much from her and makes me respect her a lot. Her last event was 400m IM when she was denied at the final gate at 4:49. Another salute from me. She showed her style and rich experience. Her teammate, Qu Jingyu did not benefit much from the new training as well. He was stopped at the heats of men's 50m breast and 200m IM. He is the national record holder in the latter event (2:00.59). Lai, on the other hand, improved pb in 100m breastroke to 1:02.18 (0.2s improvement) and made it to semifinal in 200m breaststroke. Lai is the NR holder in 200m (2:13.68). It seems to me her coach did not have any expected outcome in mind before she wanted to execute the training plan that is considered totally new to them. She might just think "let's try something new and let's go". I don't mean that Ye is not a good coach since she had taken Qi to conquer the world record once and she had produced so many top domestic swimmers like Qu, Lai and Zhao Tao. Over the years, their results are quite consistent. She can bring a swimmer to a certain level, but after she is running out of her ideas to improve her swimmers, she takes the risk to try something new that she didn't even know what is exactly going on. I think Qi's response to the method can be negated and adjusted if the early symptoms Qi had were discovered, diagnosed and rectified. I think they need to do more than enough research on the method before it applies to the swimmer. Do they ever think of how much damage it will cause on one's confidence. Qi, a 2-time Olympian, finishing fourth in 2000 and sixth in 2004 in 200m breaststroke. Being a former WR holder and medalists in 01 and 03 world champ, she has given so much into her swimming career which was dated back from 1998 Asian Games (winning silver behind Tanaka Masami in 200m breastroke at 2:28.71). After her form bounced back in late 2005 and set pb in 2006, a Olympic medal is what she desires for when gold medal might be impractical since Leisiol Jones and Katie Hoff are all so much ahead of her. I don't know how much impact it is going to plummet on her. You can change but change with good reasoning.
2. Zhang Lin, a rising male swimmer in long-distance freestyle has been a mutiple finalist in last 3 world championships. I still remember that in 2005 East Asian Games, current world 400m free champion, Park Tae Hwan, and Zhang had a fierce competition in 400m and 1500m free. In that competition, they both won 1 each in less than a arm distance. In 2006 Asian Games, they had 3 head-to-head competitions (200, 400 and 1500m), Park won all 3 and the gap seemed to be widening up. After 3 months later, both were racing in Melbourne. The gap becomes enormously huge. Park won bronze in 200m and gold in 400m while Zhang only managed to make it to 200m final although he managed to break his own national record. Park has become world top class swimmer but Zhang seems to refuse improvement. Here were their head-to-head competitions:
200m
Park vs Zhang
2005 world champ: 1:49.70 (20th in heat) vs 1:48.10 (7th in sf)
2006 Panpac: 1:47.51 (silver) vs 1:47.59 (bronze)
2006 Asian Games: 1:47.12 (gold) vs 1:47.85 (silver)
2007 world champ: 1:46.73 (bronze) vs 1:47.53 (6th)
Improvement (from 2005 to 2007)
Park: 2.97 seconds
Zhang: 0.57 seconds
400m
2005 world champ: 4:04.75 (42nd in heat) vs 3:51.88 (19th in heat)
2005 East Asian Games: 3:48.71 (gold) vs 3:48.94 (silver)
2006 Panpac: 3:45.72 (gold) vs 3:47.07 (silver)
2006 Asian Games: 3:48.44 (gold) vs 3:49.03 (silver)
2007 world champ: 3:44.30 (gold) vs 3:49.08 (11th)
Imrprovement (from 2005 to 2007):
Park: 4.41 seconds
Zhang: 1.87 seconds
1500m
2005 East Asian Games: 15:00.32 (silver) vs 15:00.27 (gold)
2006 Panpac: 15:06.11 (gold) vs --
2006 Asian Games: 14:55.03 (gold) vs 15:03.13 (silver)
2007 world champ: 15:03.62 (9th) vs 15:13.27 (18th)
Imrprovement (from 2005 to 2007):
Park: 5.29 seconds
Zhang: 0 seconds
Obviously, Park is leading ahead of Zhang when Park had time improvement series 2.97, 4.41 and 5.29 seconds in 3 events while Zhang only managed 0.57, 1.87 and 0 seconds. Now is May 2007, in 2 years and 5 months, the degree of improvement for Zhang was comparatively small. We might ask, they are both East Asian and China even has a stronger background in swimming. Why is the success in Park? Why is Zhang Lin stepping on the same ground or improving so little? It goes down to training again. Before World champ, the media had already disclosed Park was training in Australia as preparation for the world champ while Zhang was still following his coach, Chen Yinghong's training program to prepare the competition. The timer was cold but is definitely telling the truth. Zhang's ability in competition is improving based on his heats times but Park's advancement was just too overwhelming to him when he looks at Park as a main opponent in Asia. It proves that the training Park had received in Australia is effective, at least based on the results this time. Zhang also felt unease on Park's performance complaining about the training method he is following. Nevertheless, I would say there is a trememdous multidirectional improvement over the years on men's side. Take a look at the national record before 2000 and the record nowadays will tell the huge improvement in Chinese men's swimming.
Order: Before 2000, After 2000
100m fr: 50.51 (Shen Jianqiang) to 49.06 (Chen Zuo in 06) => 1.45 seconds
200m fr: 1:50.60 (Chen Zhou in 97) to 1:47.53 (Zhang in 07) => 3.07 seconds
400m fr: 3:54.78 (Jin Hao in 97) to 3:47.07 (Zhang in 06) => 7.71 seconds
1500m fr: 15.29.xx (Wang Dali) 15:00.27 (Zhang in 05) => more than 25 seconds
100m back: 56.04 (Lin Laijiu in 93) to 54.07 (Ouyang Kunpeng in 05) => 1.97 seconds
200m back: 1:58.72 (Fu Yong in 97) to 1:57.91 (Ouyang in 05) => 0.79 seconds
200m breaststroke: 2:14.56 (Wang Yiwu in 94) to 2:13.68 (Lai Zhongjian in 06) => 0.88 seconds
100m fly: 53.20 (Jiang Chengji in 96) to 52.70 (Zhou Jiawei in 05) => 0.5 second
200m fly: 1:59.07 (Xie Xufeng in 97) to 1:54.91 (Wu Peng in 06) => 4.16 seconds
200m IM: 2:02.36 (Wang Wei in 97) to 2:00.59 (Qu Jingyu in 05) => 1.87 seconds
400m IM: 4:19.03 (Xiong Guoming in 97) to 4:15.38 (Wu Peng in 02) => 3.65 seconds
Only 50m free (22.33 by Jiang Chengji) and 100m breaststroke (1:01.66 by Zeng Qiliang) were not broken after 2000. These times are quite competitive in the world now which has changed the past concept on Chinese swimming as "Strong women but weak men". However, from Zhang's case, training is still the cause of the problem.
3. New time schedule: In order to adapt to the Olympic program "morning final, evening heats", they started adopting a new training schedule: swimmers wake up at 5:30am and start training at 6am with no food intake. From 9-11:30am is nap time followed by lunch. Training starts again at 3pm and finishes at 6pm. Most of the swimmers cannot adapt to the schedule at once but start getting to used after a few weeks later. However, without a single grain in the stomach before jumping into the pool to start hard training seems unhealthy. Swimmers don't have their early breakfast take more-than-enough food after the morning training which makes them unable to have lunch. This also affects the nap quality. From some reports, swimmers also complained about not much food choice in the early morning since most of the available food sources are unavailable at this time and they all just feel sleepy but not really hungary. I really don't understand. All these situations are supposed to take into considerations. Like what kinds of responses may the swimmers have during the change? what can make the transition smoother? Never heard about these! Hope they can find a way of success in the remaining time heading to Olympics
Recently, a few examples triggers these thoughts:
1. Qi Hui, former women's 200m breastroke world record holder (2:22.99 in 2002) had a really nightmare in just-wrapped-up world championships after she was trying a new training method: "living at altitudes, training at sea level" which has been claimed to use successfully in the West. Her coach, Ye Jin, tried this new method on her team including world champ representatives Qi, Qu Jingyu and Lai Zhongjian. Among them, Qi's response to the new method was the worst when she only managed to swim 2:19.05 in 200m IM heats while her pb came from last year 2:11.92 and she has constantly been swimming 2:13, 2:14 over the last 5 years. After that, she swam around 2:30 in the heats and semi final in her pet event, 200m breaststroke. Based on her form, this must have taken so much from her and makes me respect her a lot. Her last event was 400m IM when she was denied at the final gate at 4:49. Another salute from me. She showed her style and rich experience. Her teammate, Qu Jingyu did not benefit much from the new training as well. He was stopped at the heats of men's 50m breast and 200m IM. He is the national record holder in the latter event (2:00.59). Lai, on the other hand, improved pb in 100m breastroke to 1:02.18 (0.2s improvement) and made it to semifinal in 200m breaststroke. Lai is the NR holder in 200m (2:13.68). It seems to me her coach did not have any expected outcome in mind before she wanted to execute the training plan that is considered totally new to them. She might just think "let's try something new and let's go". I don't mean that Ye is not a good coach since she had taken Qi to conquer the world record once and she had produced so many top domestic swimmers like Qu, Lai and Zhao Tao. Over the years, their results are quite consistent. She can bring a swimmer to a certain level, but after she is running out of her ideas to improve her swimmers, she takes the risk to try something new that she didn't even know what is exactly going on. I think Qi's response to the method can be negated and adjusted if the early symptoms Qi had were discovered, diagnosed and rectified. I think they need to do more than enough research on the method before it applies to the swimmer. Do they ever think of how much damage it will cause on one's confidence. Qi, a 2-time Olympian, finishing fourth in 2000 and sixth in 2004 in 200m breaststroke. Being a former WR holder and medalists in 01 and 03 world champ, she has given so much into her swimming career which was dated back from 1998 Asian Games (winning silver behind Tanaka Masami in 200m breastroke at 2:28.71). After her form bounced back in late 2005 and set pb in 2006, a Olympic medal is what she desires for when gold medal might be impractical since Leisiol Jones and Katie Hoff are all so much ahead of her. I don't know how much impact it is going to plummet on her. You can change but change with good reasoning.
2. Zhang Lin, a rising male swimmer in long-distance freestyle has been a mutiple finalist in last 3 world championships. I still remember that in 2005 East Asian Games, current world 400m free champion, Park Tae Hwan, and Zhang had a fierce competition in 400m and 1500m free. In that competition, they both won 1 each in less than a arm distance. In 2006 Asian Games, they had 3 head-to-head competitions (200, 400 and 1500m), Park won all 3 and the gap seemed to be widening up. After 3 months later, both were racing in Melbourne. The gap becomes enormously huge. Park won bronze in 200m and gold in 400m while Zhang only managed to make it to 200m final although he managed to break his own national record. Park has become world top class swimmer but Zhang seems to refuse improvement. Here were their head-to-head competitions:
200m
Park vs Zhang
2005 world champ: 1:49.70 (20th in heat) vs 1:48.10 (7th in sf)
2006 Panpac: 1:47.51 (silver) vs 1:47.59 (bronze)
2006 Asian Games: 1:47.12 (gold) vs 1:47.85 (silver)
2007 world champ: 1:46.73 (bronze) vs 1:47.53 (6th)
Improvement (from 2005 to 2007)
Park: 2.97 seconds
Zhang: 0.57 seconds
400m
2005 world champ: 4:04.75 (42nd in heat) vs 3:51.88 (19th in heat)
2005 East Asian Games: 3:48.71 (gold) vs 3:48.94 (silver)
2006 Panpac: 3:45.72 (gold) vs 3:47.07 (silver)
2006 Asian Games: 3:48.44 (gold) vs 3:49.03 (silver)
2007 world champ: 3:44.30 (gold) vs 3:49.08 (11th)
Imrprovement (from 2005 to 2007):
Park: 4.41 seconds
Zhang: 1.87 seconds
1500m
2005 East Asian Games: 15:00.32 (silver) vs 15:00.27 (gold)
2006 Panpac: 15:06.11 (gold) vs --
2006 Asian Games: 14:55.03 (gold) vs 15:03.13 (silver)
2007 world champ: 15:03.62 (9th) vs 15:13.27 (18th)
Imrprovement (from 2005 to 2007):
Park: 5.29 seconds
Zhang: 0 seconds
Obviously, Park is leading ahead of Zhang when Park had time improvement series 2.97, 4.41 and 5.29 seconds in 3 events while Zhang only managed 0.57, 1.87 and 0 seconds. Now is May 2007, in 2 years and 5 months, the degree of improvement for Zhang was comparatively small. We might ask, they are both East Asian and China even has a stronger background in swimming. Why is the success in Park? Why is Zhang Lin stepping on the same ground or improving so little? It goes down to training again. Before World champ, the media had already disclosed Park was training in Australia as preparation for the world champ while Zhang was still following his coach, Chen Yinghong's training program to prepare the competition. The timer was cold but is definitely telling the truth. Zhang's ability in competition is improving based on his heats times but Park's advancement was just too overwhelming to him when he looks at Park as a main opponent in Asia. It proves that the training Park had received in Australia is effective, at least based on the results this time. Zhang also felt unease on Park's performance complaining about the training method he is following. Nevertheless, I would say there is a trememdous multidirectional improvement over the years on men's side. Take a look at the national record before 2000 and the record nowadays will tell the huge improvement in Chinese men's swimming.
Order: Before 2000, After 2000
100m fr: 50.51 (Shen Jianqiang) to 49.06 (Chen Zuo in 06) => 1.45 seconds
200m fr: 1:50.60 (Chen Zhou in 97) to 1:47.53 (Zhang in 07) => 3.07 seconds
400m fr: 3:54.78 (Jin Hao in 97) to 3:47.07 (Zhang in 06) => 7.71 seconds
1500m fr: 15.29.xx (Wang Dali) 15:00.27 (Zhang in 05) => more than 25 seconds
100m back: 56.04 (Lin Laijiu in 93) to 54.07 (Ouyang Kunpeng in 05) => 1.97 seconds
200m back: 1:58.72 (Fu Yong in 97) to 1:57.91 (Ouyang in 05) => 0.79 seconds
200m breaststroke: 2:14.56 (Wang Yiwu in 94) to 2:13.68 (Lai Zhongjian in 06) => 0.88 seconds
100m fly: 53.20 (Jiang Chengji in 96) to 52.70 (Zhou Jiawei in 05) => 0.5 second
200m fly: 1:59.07 (Xie Xufeng in 97) to 1:54.91 (Wu Peng in 06) => 4.16 seconds
200m IM: 2:02.36 (Wang Wei in 97) to 2:00.59 (Qu Jingyu in 05) => 1.87 seconds
400m IM: 4:19.03 (Xiong Guoming in 97) to 4:15.38 (Wu Peng in 02) => 3.65 seconds
Only 50m free (22.33 by Jiang Chengji) and 100m breaststroke (1:01.66 by Zeng Qiliang) were not broken after 2000. These times are quite competitive in the world now which has changed the past concept on Chinese swimming as "Strong women but weak men". However, from Zhang's case, training is still the cause of the problem.
3. New time schedule: In order to adapt to the Olympic program "morning final, evening heats", they started adopting a new training schedule: swimmers wake up at 5:30am and start training at 6am with no food intake. From 9-11:30am is nap time followed by lunch. Training starts again at 3pm and finishes at 6pm. Most of the swimmers cannot adapt to the schedule at once but start getting to used after a few weeks later. However, without a single grain in the stomach before jumping into the pool to start hard training seems unhealthy. Swimmers don't have their early breakfast take more-than-enough food after the morning training which makes them unable to have lunch. This also affects the nap quality. From some reports, swimmers also complained about not much food choice in the early morning since most of the available food sources are unavailable at this time and they all just feel sleepy but not really hungary. I really don't understand. All these situations are supposed to take into considerations. Like what kinds of responses may the swimmers have during the change? what can make the transition smoother? Never heard about these! Hope they can find a way of success in the remaining time heading to Olympics
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Osaka GP on 6/5
Chinese team won 2 events (men's 110m hurdle and women's pole vault). Most of the athletes, as quoted by Chinese AAA coach, Feng Shuyong , performed normally. I would say so. But I still need to pick the flaws: Zhang Wenxiu should not be content to be a 71-72m thrower if she wants to be a Olympic medal contender. Zhang Shufeng should at least jump 2.24m to be considered a pass when he only managed to go past 2.21m. Chen Qi is still not consistent to be the next Li Rongxiang. 73m was all he could do in the meet. The surprise came from women's 4x100m team formed by Wang Jing, Chen Jue, Han Ling and Qin Wangping. They produced a time 43.69s that was the best time in 5 years and they have qualified for Osaka World Champ this year. Chen Yaling's 6.43m in women's long jump was just ok based on her level. But In Asian region, women's long jump is no longer a traditional event for China from which has produced one 7 metre jumper, two 6.9-meter performers and numerous 6.8-meter leapers. The best jump last year was 6.62m by Chen. What a disappointing scenario. Chinese has not been able to win any medal in last 2 editions of Asian Games.
One of the 6.9-meter jumpers, 30-year-old Guan Yingnan was still in action last year and never heard about her retirement. She is still the one to watch if she is back on track.
Guan's pb is 6.95m. She won 98 Asian Games, bronze in World Cup in the same year, was a finalist in 2001 world champ and finished 4th in 2004 world indoor champ. On national level, she won twice in national games (1997 representating Liaoning (6.86m) and 2005 representating Jiangsu (6.65m)) .
One of the 6.9-meter jumpers, 30-year-old Guan Yingnan was still in action last year and never heard about her retirement. She is still the one to watch if she is back on track.
Guan's pb is 6.95m. She won 98 Asian Games, bronze in World Cup in the same year, was a finalist in 2001 world champ and finished 4th in 2004 world indoor champ. On national level, she won twice in national games (1997 representating Liaoning (6.86m) and 2005 representating Jiangsu (6.65m)) .
National indoor record broken this season
A number of indoor national records were broken in this indoor season:
Men's 60m: Wen Yongyi 6.59
Men's 800m: Li Xiangyu 1:49.20*
Men's 1500m: Gu Ming 3:44.03*
Men's 1 mile: Gu Ming 4:00.20*
Men's pole vault: Yang Quan 5.61m
Women's 5000: Jin Yuan 16:07.75*
Women's pole vault: Zhang Yingning 4.46m
*produced on oversized track
Junior records
---------------
Men's Long jump: Zhang Xiaoyi 8.03m
Men's shotput: Wang Like 18.41m
Men's Hepthalon: Guo Weizhao 5502
Women's 5000: Jin Yuan 16:07.75
Women's high jump: Zheng Xingyuan 1.92m
Women's pole vault: Zhang Yingning 4.46m
Women's shotput: Gong Lijiao 19.07m
Men's 60m: Wen Yongyi 6.59
Men's 800m: Li Xiangyu 1:49.20*
Men's 1500m: Gu Ming 3:44.03*
Men's 1 mile: Gu Ming 4:00.20*
Men's pole vault: Yang Quan 5.61m
Women's 5000: Jin Yuan 16:07.75*
Women's pole vault: Zhang Yingning 4.46m
*produced on oversized track
Junior records
---------------
Men's Long jump: Zhang Xiaoyi 8.03m
Men's shotput: Wang Like 18.41m
Men's Hepthalon: Guo Weizhao 5502
Women's 5000: Jin Yuan 16:07.75
Women's high jump: Zheng Xingyuan 1.92m
Women's pole vault: Zhang Yingning 4.46m
Women's shotput: Gong Lijiao 19.07m
Chinese spring swimming National Champ (2-5/3/07)
Not many results were found from the internet. Manage to get some fragments. There were 2 meets holding at the same time in Fuzhou (south) and Tangshan (north). A glance of results:
W800m fr (S): You Meihong (GD) 8:39.92
W200m fr (S): Zheng Yifei (GZA) 2:03.13
W50m fr (N): Han Xue (BJ) 26.32
M400mfr (N): Zhu Yanbin (Qiqihaer) 4:04.89
W400m fr (S): Yu Xin (GD) 4:13.02
M200m fly (N): Liu Weijia (LN) 2:01.04
M200m Br (N): Liu Weijia (LN) 2:20.51
W100m fly (N): Huang Xiaotong (SD) 1:01.13
W200m IM (S): Li Xuanxu (GD) 2:15.42
M1500m fr (N): He Xiaofeng (SH) 15:54.20
W200m back (N): Wang Yu (HeB) 2:16.67
M100m Br (S): Wang Mengjian (FJ)
M200m Br (S): Wang Mengjian (FJ)
M100m Fly (S): Chen Ronghui (FJ)
M200m Fly (S): Chen Ronghui (FJ)
M100m back (S): Wang Yi (FJ)
W400m IM (N): Yu Yang (SD) 4:53.29
Here, we saw three 10th National Games champions in action: Liu Weijia (200m br), Wang Mengjian (100m br) and Huang Xiaotong (200m fly). Also, Han Xue, former world short course women's 50m breaststroke world record (30.77) holder is making a comeback in 50m free, an event she concentrated in later part of her career before her last retirement in 2001. Her pbs are: 50m free is 25.62, 100m free is 55.76, 50m breast: 31.89 (long course). She was 1996 and 2000 Olympian. She won bronze in 96 4x100m medley swimming breaststroke leg. It will be great if she makes it to 3rd Olympics but she needs to improve tremendously since Shanghai has Zhu Yingwen and Xu Yanwei who both can swim low 25s consistently. From this meet, we also found that Guangdong women are going strong and they start doing better in long distance freestyle producing 2 quality times in women's 400m fr (4:13.02 by Yu Xin) and 800m fr (8:39.92 by You Meihong). They have shown their efforts to get away from the image that Guangdong woman can only do well in backstroke. Another quality swim was also contributed by Guangdong in 200m IM in which Li Xuanxu swam 2:15.42, a world top 25 swim. As mentioned in the last post, Yu, You and Li are all 8:40 swimmers in 800m fr and Yu and You both produced pbs in their winning events this time. After Zhejiang, Shangdong and Tianjin, Guangdong may pose a great impact in domestic female long distance free. Time will tell.
W800m fr (S): You Meihong (GD) 8:39.92
W200m fr (S): Zheng Yifei (GZA) 2:03.13
W50m fr (N): Han Xue (BJ) 26.32
M400mfr (N): Zhu Yanbin (Qiqihaer) 4:04.89
W400m fr (S): Yu Xin (GD) 4:13.02
M200m fly (N): Liu Weijia (LN) 2:01.04
M200m Br (N): Liu Weijia (LN) 2:20.51
W100m fly (N): Huang Xiaotong (SD) 1:01.13
W200m IM (S): Li Xuanxu (GD) 2:15.42
M1500m fr (N): He Xiaofeng (SH) 15:54.20
W200m back (N): Wang Yu (HeB) 2:16.67
M100m Br (S): Wang Mengjian (FJ)
M200m Br (S): Wang Mengjian (FJ)
M100m Fly (S): Chen Ronghui (FJ)
M200m Fly (S): Chen Ronghui (FJ)
M100m back (S): Wang Yi (FJ)
W400m IM (N): Yu Yang (SD) 4:53.29
Here, we saw three 10th National Games champions in action: Liu Weijia (200m br), Wang Mengjian (100m br) and Huang Xiaotong (200m fly). Also, Han Xue, former world short course women's 50m breaststroke world record (30.77) holder is making a comeback in 50m free, an event she concentrated in later part of her career before her last retirement in 2001. Her pbs are: 50m free is 25.62, 100m free is 55.76, 50m breast: 31.89 (long course). She was 1996 and 2000 Olympian. She won bronze in 96 4x100m medley swimming breaststroke leg. It will be great if she makes it to 3rd Olympics but she needs to improve tremendously since Shanghai has Zhu Yingwen and Xu Yanwei who both can swim low 25s consistently. From this meet, we also found that Guangdong women are going strong and they start doing better in long distance freestyle producing 2 quality times in women's 400m fr (4:13.02 by Yu Xin) and 800m fr (8:39.92 by You Meihong). They have shown their efforts to get away from the image that Guangdong woman can only do well in backstroke. Another quality swim was also contributed by Guangdong in 200m IM in which Li Xuanxu swam 2:15.42, a world top 25 swim. As mentioned in the last post, Yu, You and Li are all 8:40 swimmers in 800m fr and Yu and You both produced pbs in their winning events this time. After Zhejiang, Shangdong and Tianjin, Guangdong may pose a great impact in domestic female long distance free. Time will tell.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Sum up notable results in last year end Chinese swimming championships results
Get tired from work and no mood to work today. Try to do something I want to do. No official results were out for this championships, but I manage to get some results from the SwimNews ranking section. No final rankings were put because some swimmers might have performed better in the previous meets. Results here would be seasonal best or pb of a swimmer created in this meet. I think some of them are quite notable and some of the results were used to select the team for 2007 World championships (* for that). We also see some National Games sydrome here. Huang Xiaotong (Shandong), National Games winner in 200m fly, went down from 2:09.25 to 2:13.04. Tan Miao and Yu Rui, both World Champ representatives, also had different degree of form loss after National Games, but it is still acceptable. Both swam up to their normal standard, as their 1st world champ. The others like Liao Yali, 200m back champion, slumped from 2:10 to 2:15.15 which is not very normal.
Men
50m fr
Shi Yang 22.93*
You Tianyu 22.98
Han Tianji 23.13
Liu Yu 23.20
Shi Runqiang 23.31
100m fr
Zhang Lin 50.56
Lu Zhiwu 50.77 *
Shi Runqiang 50.88
Wang Pengyuan 51.00
Zhang Zishan 51.36
Liu Runliang 51.47
200m fr
Wang Pengyuan 1:51.57
Ji Zhixiang 1:52.32
400m fr
Sun Yang 3:52.12*
Ji Zhixiang 3:54.18
Zhao Tao 3:56.79
1500m fr
Sun Yang 15:26.05*
Zu Lijun 15:35.84
50m back
Zhang Chang 26.22 *
100m back
Wang Yaxiong 57.00
Zhang Chang 57.11
200m back
Deng Jian 2:04.44
50m br
Cheng Peng 29.09
100m br (no sub 1:04)
--
200m br
Xue Ruipeng 2:17.43
50m Fly
Lin Lejun 24.61
Sun Xiaolei 24.63
100m fly
Chen Yin 54.33
200m fly
Chen Yanlong 2:00.23
Zhao Yang 2:01.30
Chen Weiwu 2:01.78
200m IM
Zhang Zishan 2:03.31 *
Li Ziqiang 2:04.88
400m IM
Li Ziqiang 4:21.66 *
Sun Yang 4:25.87
Chen Xiaojun 4:26.03
Women
50m fr
Zhu Yingwen 25.34 *
100m fr
Zhu Yingwen 55.63*
Tang Yi 55.80 *
Tang Jingzhi 56.65
Zhu Qianwei 56.96
200m fr
Li Xue 2:01.82
Zhang Chen 2:02.02
400m fr
Yu Rui 4:10.91*
Song Wenyan 4:14.86
Ha Sinan 4:14.90
Yu Xin 4:15.15
Tang Yi 4:15.31
800m fr
Tan Miao 8:39.75*
Yang Jing 8:40.82
Yang Fan 8:40.86
Li Xuanxu 8:42.99
You Meihong 8:44.15
Yu Xin 8:45.49
50m back
Gao Chang 28.81*
Yang Li 28.85
Chen Yanyan 29.29
Liu Zhen 29.29
100m back
Zhou Yanxin 1:02.67
Liu Zhen 1:02.81
Gao Chang 1:03.00
200m back
Xutain Longzi 2:13.24
50m Br
Liu Xiaoyu 32.48
Chen Huijia 32.50
100m Br
Chen Huijia 1:10.10*
Zhang Ling 1:10.53
Meng Meng 1:10.83
200m Br
Chen Huijia 2:30.86
Liu Hongjiao 2:31.75
Zhou Wenting 2:32.44
50m Fly
Hong Wenwen 27.34
Yu Yao 27.81
Chen Chen 27.85
100m Fly
Wang Jiazheng 1:00.68
Huang Xiaotong 1:00.80
Zhang Fan 1:00.99
200m Fly
Zheng Xi 2:12.00
Tan Miao 2:12.66
Huang Xiaotong 2:13.04
200m IM
Yu Yao 2:15.51*
Liu Jing 2:15.59
Zhou Wenting 2:16.50
400m IM
Zhang Chen 4:41.03
Liu Jing 4:43.84
Men
50m fr
Shi Yang 22.93*
You Tianyu 22.98
Han Tianji 23.13
Liu Yu 23.20
Shi Runqiang 23.31
100m fr
Zhang Lin 50.56
Lu Zhiwu 50.77 *
Shi Runqiang 50.88
Wang Pengyuan 51.00
Zhang Zishan 51.36
Liu Runliang 51.47
200m fr
Wang Pengyuan 1:51.57
Ji Zhixiang 1:52.32
400m fr
Sun Yang 3:52.12*
Ji Zhixiang 3:54.18
Zhao Tao 3:56.79
1500m fr
Sun Yang 15:26.05*
Zu Lijun 15:35.84
50m back
Zhang Chang 26.22 *
100m back
Wang Yaxiong 57.00
Zhang Chang 57.11
200m back
Deng Jian 2:04.44
50m br
Cheng Peng 29.09
100m br (no sub 1:04)
--
200m br
Xue Ruipeng 2:17.43
50m Fly
Lin Lejun 24.61
Sun Xiaolei 24.63
100m fly
Chen Yin 54.33
200m fly
Chen Yanlong 2:00.23
Zhao Yang 2:01.30
Chen Weiwu 2:01.78
200m IM
Zhang Zishan 2:03.31 *
Li Ziqiang 2:04.88
400m IM
Li Ziqiang 4:21.66 *
Sun Yang 4:25.87
Chen Xiaojun 4:26.03
Women
50m fr
Zhu Yingwen 25.34 *
100m fr
Zhu Yingwen 55.63*
Tang Yi 55.80 *
Tang Jingzhi 56.65
Zhu Qianwei 56.96
200m fr
Li Xue 2:01.82
Zhang Chen 2:02.02
400m fr
Yu Rui 4:10.91*
Song Wenyan 4:14.86
Ha Sinan 4:14.90
Yu Xin 4:15.15
Tang Yi 4:15.31
800m fr
Tan Miao 8:39.75*
Yang Jing 8:40.82
Yang Fan 8:40.86
Li Xuanxu 8:42.99
You Meihong 8:44.15
Yu Xin 8:45.49
50m back
Gao Chang 28.81*
Yang Li 28.85
Chen Yanyan 29.29
Liu Zhen 29.29
100m back
Zhou Yanxin 1:02.67
Liu Zhen 1:02.81
Gao Chang 1:03.00
200m back
Xutain Longzi 2:13.24
50m Br
Liu Xiaoyu 32.48
Chen Huijia 32.50
100m Br
Chen Huijia 1:10.10*
Zhang Ling 1:10.53
Meng Meng 1:10.83
200m Br
Chen Huijia 2:30.86
Liu Hongjiao 2:31.75
Zhou Wenting 2:32.44
50m Fly
Hong Wenwen 27.34
Yu Yao 27.81
Chen Chen 27.85
100m Fly
Wang Jiazheng 1:00.68
Huang Xiaotong 1:00.80
Zhang Fan 1:00.99
200m Fly
Zheng Xi 2:12.00
Tan Miao 2:12.66
Huang Xiaotong 2:13.04
200m IM
Yu Yao 2:15.51*
Liu Jing 2:15.59
Zhou Wenting 2:16.50
400m IM
Zhang Chen 4:41.03
Liu Jing 4:43.84
Friday, May 04, 2007
Chinese runners in Stanford meet (Apr 29)
Mens's 800m
3. Li Xiangyu 1:49.16
Men's 1500m
4. Gu Ming 3:42.10 (pb)
Women's 3000m steeplechase
3. Jin Yuan 10:01.94 (pb)
2 pbs were set in Stanford.Gu Ming sliced off a few hundredth of seconds from his previous best set in Shanghai GP last year. Jin Yuan competed her 3rd 3000m steeplechase and cut down more than 17 seconds off her pb in this meet. Li Xiangyu who set the indoor national 800m record earlier, ran a moderate 1:49.16. Last year, he did 1:46.45, just 0.03 seconds behind Ma's army runner, Mu Weiguo's 13-year-old record set in 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. Hope it gets wiped off soon.
Today is Osaka GP. China sends a small contingent including Liu Xiang (110m hurdle), Shi Dongpeng (110m hurdle), Zhang Shufeng (men's high jump), Chen Qi (men's Javelin), Chen Yaling (women's long jump), Zhang Yingning (women's pole vault), Zhang Wenxiu (women's hammer) and Hao Shuai (women's hammer). Women's 4 x100m team (Qin Wangping, Han Ling, Chen Jue and Wang Jing) is also competing. Women's pole vault was out and Zhang Yingning won the competition in 4.40m. She just set Asian Indoor record at 4.46m. Good to see another rising pole vaulter to compete with Gao Shuying. What she needs now is Gao's consistency. Zhao Yingying, another 4.40m performer in 2005, started failing to improve and now 3.80m is what she all can do. There are just so many pre-mature falling stars or one-hit stars in China. Before this meet, 95% of the news in China have been focused on Liu Xiang's appearance and a small portion of news goes to Shi Dongpeng on whether he will get the second spot behind Liu in the competition. It really sucks.
The 2nd thing is I don't know how Chinese AAA determines the women's 4x100m team. Qin is the only experienced but she has not improved since 2000. Her pb still stands at 11.30s and she only got close this mark a couple of times. I guess she is only interested in winning honour for her province (Jiangsu) in national games. She finished 3rd in 2002 Asian Games and 5th or 6th in 2006. She does not seem to be going anywhere far. Natioanal Games Champion are more realistic for her to secure housing and money. The other three are so inexperienced and their levels are in 11.50 to 11.80s. Although the quartet won Asian Games title, I don't have high expectation for them in Olympics if they don't improve their pbs to 11.20 to 11.40.
I'd love to see how Hao Shuai performs in hammer. She did 68+ last week in Beijing to set a 3-meter pb. 70m is all I look for.
Just a few seconds back, Liu Xiang won his 4th Osaka GP title in 13.14s. Great performance again. Shi Dongpeng, this time, lives up his expectation to slice .04 seconds off his pb to finish 2nd (13.24s), just 0.1 second behind Liu. He climbed to the 2nd all time in China in front of Li Tong (13.25s), finalist of 1991 world championships. With this time, Shi should be more confident to make it the second time to the world championships final.
3. Li Xiangyu 1:49.16
Men's 1500m
4. Gu Ming 3:42.10 (pb)
Women's 3000m steeplechase
3. Jin Yuan 10:01.94 (pb)
2 pbs were set in Stanford.Gu Ming sliced off a few hundredth of seconds from his previous best set in Shanghai GP last year. Jin Yuan competed her 3rd 3000m steeplechase and cut down more than 17 seconds off her pb in this meet. Li Xiangyu who set the indoor national 800m record earlier, ran a moderate 1:49.16. Last year, he did 1:46.45, just 0.03 seconds behind Ma's army runner, Mu Weiguo's 13-year-old record set in 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. Hope it gets wiped off soon.
Today is Osaka GP. China sends a small contingent including Liu Xiang (110m hurdle), Shi Dongpeng (110m hurdle), Zhang Shufeng (men's high jump), Chen Qi (men's Javelin), Chen Yaling (women's long jump), Zhang Yingning (women's pole vault), Zhang Wenxiu (women's hammer) and Hao Shuai (women's hammer). Women's 4 x100m team (Qin Wangping, Han Ling, Chen Jue and Wang Jing) is also competing. Women's pole vault was out and Zhang Yingning won the competition in 4.40m. She just set Asian Indoor record at 4.46m. Good to see another rising pole vaulter to compete with Gao Shuying. What she needs now is Gao's consistency. Zhao Yingying, another 4.40m performer in 2005, started failing to improve and now 3.80m is what she all can do. There are just so many pre-mature falling stars or one-hit stars in China. Before this meet, 95% of the news in China have been focused on Liu Xiang's appearance and a small portion of news goes to Shi Dongpeng on whether he will get the second spot behind Liu in the competition. It really sucks.
The 2nd thing is I don't know how Chinese AAA determines the women's 4x100m team. Qin is the only experienced but she has not improved since 2000. Her pb still stands at 11.30s and she only got close this mark a couple of times. I guess she is only interested in winning honour for her province (Jiangsu) in national games. She finished 3rd in 2002 Asian Games and 5th or 6th in 2006. She does not seem to be going anywhere far. Natioanal Games Champion are more realistic for her to secure housing and money. The other three are so inexperienced and their levels are in 11.50 to 11.80s. Although the quartet won Asian Games title, I don't have high expectation for them in Olympics if they don't improve their pbs to 11.20 to 11.40.
I'd love to see how Hao Shuai performs in hammer. She did 68+ last week in Beijing to set a 3-meter pb. 70m is all I look for.
Just a few seconds back, Liu Xiang won his 4th Osaka GP title in 13.14s. Great performance again. Shi Dongpeng, this time, lives up his expectation to slice .04 seconds off his pb to finish 2nd (13.24s), just 0.1 second behind Liu. He climbed to the 2nd all time in China in front of Li Tong (13.25s), finalist of 1991 world championships. With this time, Shi should be more confident to make it the second time to the world championships final.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
1st competition for Xing Huina
Xing's 1st competition lost to high school girl, Zhu Yingying (behind)
Yangzhou International half marathon (Apr 28)
Yangzhou. Cheng Tao from Shandong won the men's race in 63:22 to beat Kenyans while Xiaomen's marathon champion, Zhu Xiaolin ran a moderate 73:24 to win women's race. Jiang Yuanyuan and Seoul Marathon winner, Wei Yanan rounded up the women's podium with the time 73:30 and 73:39, respectively. Zhu's time was amost 3 and a half minutes slower than the split time of Zhou Chunxiu in winning London marathon (69:58). Both Zhu and Wei ran quality times in marathon earlier so this may serve as a training session for them. National record was held by suspended Sun Yingjie in 68:40 when she won world half marathon championships in 2004.
Track and field meet in Beijing on Apr 28
Beijing (Beijing sports College). Women's 10000m Olympic champion, Xing Huina and Women's hammer Asian record holder, Zhang Wenxiu started the outdoor in a low-key meet in Beijing. In the 1st competition of 2007, Xing Huina lost to high school girl, Zhu Yingying in women's 5000m. Zhu finished in a time of 15:35.25 beating Xing by 1.69s. Double Asian champion and 4th placer in world junior championships last year, Bai Xue finished way back at 16:02.26.
Zhang Wenxiu started her season with a 72.17m win. Hao Shuai from Liaoning set a pb 68.60m to finish 2nd and Wang Yang from Sichuan also set a pb of 64.47m to take the third position. Zhang's coach,Ye Kuigang interestingly, finished 2nd in men's competition (63.09m) behind Chongqing's Yao Hongzhu (65.16m).
After jumping 17.03m last year, Zhejiang's Zhu Shujing still cannot find his form and only finished 2nd (16.04m) behind Jia Shengli from Hebei (16.12m) in a strong headwind condition.
Top 400m runner, Wang Xiaoxu of Beijing won men's 400m in moderate 47.54.
High jump events of both genders were won by Fujian jumpers. Asian Games silver medalist, Zheng Xingjuan jumped a moderate 1.84m while up and coming junior, Qu Shaobing set a pb at 2.20m to win the competition.
Former Asian Games champion and world junior champion, Wu Tao won men's discus in 61.29m to beat national junior record holder, Nuermaimaiti of Xinjiang (57.29m). Wu has not been improved since 2004 and there have been a number of throwers from middle east toppling Chinese supremacy in this event. Wu only finished 5th in the last year Asian Games. On women's side, Asian games champion and runner-up, Song Aimin and Ma Xuejun kept the ranking in the competition. Song won in 61.43m compared to 60.63m from Ma. Not a bad effort for the 1st competition. But the domestic leader currently was 61.69m by Sun Taifeng from Tianjin set in Sichuan earlier this month.
Asian number 2 in men's 110m hurdle, Shi Dongpeng zipped through ahead in the heats against -2.6m/s headwind winning 13.92 but chose to skip the final. He will be racing in Osaka GP next month with world record holder, Liu Xiang.
Under strong headwind conditions, results were poor in sprint events. Women's 100/200 times were over 12/25 seconds. Women's sprints are going downward in these few years. There were no medalists in Asian Games from women's 100 to 400m. Compared to 10.79/22.01 Asian records, 12/25 are disastrous warnings.
Former national record holder, Chen Xiaofang, won women's 3000m steeplechase in 10:00.50, about 10 seconds behind her pb.
Zhang Wenxiu started her season with a 72.17m win. Hao Shuai from Liaoning set a pb 68.60m to finish 2nd and Wang Yang from Sichuan also set a pb of 64.47m to take the third position. Zhang's coach,Ye Kuigang interestingly, finished 2nd in men's competition (63.09m) behind Chongqing's Yao Hongzhu (65.16m).
After jumping 17.03m last year, Zhejiang's Zhu Shujing still cannot find his form and only finished 2nd (16.04m) behind Jia Shengli from Hebei (16.12m) in a strong headwind condition.
Top 400m runner, Wang Xiaoxu of Beijing won men's 400m in moderate 47.54.
High jump events of both genders were won by Fujian jumpers. Asian Games silver medalist, Zheng Xingjuan jumped a moderate 1.84m while up and coming junior, Qu Shaobing set a pb at 2.20m to win the competition.
Former Asian Games champion and world junior champion, Wu Tao won men's discus in 61.29m to beat national junior record holder, Nuermaimaiti of Xinjiang (57.29m). Wu has not been improved since 2004 and there have been a number of throwers from middle east toppling Chinese supremacy in this event. Wu only finished 5th in the last year Asian Games. On women's side, Asian games champion and runner-up, Song Aimin and Ma Xuejun kept the ranking in the competition. Song won in 61.43m compared to 60.63m from Ma. Not a bad effort for the 1st competition. But the domestic leader currently was 61.69m by Sun Taifeng from Tianjin set in Sichuan earlier this month.
Asian number 2 in men's 110m hurdle, Shi Dongpeng zipped through ahead in the heats against -2.6m/s headwind winning 13.92 but chose to skip the final. He will be racing in Osaka GP next month with world record holder, Liu Xiang.
Under strong headwind conditions, results were poor in sprint events. Women's 100/200 times were over 12/25 seconds. Women's sprints are going downward in these few years. There were no medalists in Asian Games from women's 100 to 400m. Compared to 10.79/22.01 Asian records, 12/25 are disastrous warnings.
Former national record holder, Chen Xiaofang, won women's 3000m steeplechase in 10:00.50, about 10 seconds behind her pb.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Tang Xiaoyin and Huang Xiaoxiao in action (Apr 21)
Waco (Texas). National champion, Tang Xiaoyin of Guangdong started the season with 52.79s in 400m while Huang Xiaoxiao, 5th in 2005 world championships had a opener of 55.81s in 400m Hurdle. Huang also clocked 52.76s in 400m a few weeks ago.
Zhou Chunxiu made a history
Zhou Chunxiu became the 1st Chinese woman runner to win prestigious London marathon. I was so excited and watched her winning clips for a few times. Her time was also brilliant: 2:20:38 which is number one in the world so far and her 2nd career best behind 2:19:51 set in Seoul marathon last year.
I never imagine Zhou can achieve this much. She caught my eye sight when she won the Xiamen marathon in a 2:34:16 (Mar 30, 2003). She was already 24 of age which is considered old in Chinese sports. She improved to 2:23:41 in Beijing Marathon later in October 19 to finish behind Sun Yingjie (who was suspended for 2 years due to drug offence since October, 2005). In 2004, She went 2:23:28 (Mar 27) for victory in Xiamen marathon and selected in Olympic team. She finished disappointing 33rd in Athens with a time of 2:42:54 (August 22). You know, you got to pay a price if you are inexperienced. Again, she finshed behind Sun in Beijing Marathon that year (2:28:42, October 17). In 2005, she achived a feat with four sub-2:30 marathons including 2:23:24 (1st in Seoul, Mar 13), 2:29:58 (1st in Xiamen, Mar 26), 2:24:12 (5th in Helsinki, August 14) and 2:21:11 (2nd in Beijing, October 16). Noted that between Seoul and Xiamen, there were only 13 days for her to recover. Also, after she finished 2nd in Beijing behind Sun which was also part of 10th National Games, she and Sun flied to Nanjing for women's 10000m 2 days later ending up in 3rd finish (31:09) behind Olympic champion Xing Huina and Sun, 3rd in 2003 world championships. After this race, Sun, the 2nd placer in the race, failed in drug test and Zhou moved up to the 2nd place.
Since then, Zhou moved on and established herself to be the Chinese number 1. In 2006, She became the 7th woman in history to run magical sub-2:20 barrier in Seoul (2:19:51, Mar 12). She was also the 2nd Chinese woman to ran below 2:20. The 1st one is Sun (2:19:39 in 2003). In the year end, she won Asian Games in a tough condition in Doha (2:27:03, Dec, 19, 2006) and beat Japanese runners by 3 minutes.
In pre-race interview before London marathon, she confessed her training was smooth and she came here to gain more experience and learn from others. This was also her third marathon in Europe since Athens and Helsinki and she beat a strong field with at least 6 sub 2:23 runners including Lornah Kiplagat, Berhane Adere, Gete Wami, Constantina Tomescu-Dita and Benita Johnson.
As usual, Chinese media starts the hype about her becoming the definite gold favourite without knowing the complexity in marathon. There were so many examples. I thought people still remembered the world record holder, Paula Racliffe in 2004 Olympics had to stopped in the race when she was claimed to be the pre-race red hot favourite. It is a 42.195km distance. No matter how fast you run in the 1st 30km, something may just go wrong and make you stop. It can be so disappointing. After the win, Zhou said she only targets a medal and a gold is the best.
Splits for Zhou:
10km: 32:56
20km: 66:18
Half: 69:58
30km: 1:39:35
40km: 2:13:23
42.195km: 2:20:38
I never imagine Zhou can achieve this much. She caught my eye sight when she won the Xiamen marathon in a 2:34:16 (Mar 30, 2003). She was already 24 of age which is considered old in Chinese sports. She improved to 2:23:41 in Beijing Marathon later in October 19 to finish behind Sun Yingjie (who was suspended for 2 years due to drug offence since October, 2005). In 2004, She went 2:23:28 (Mar 27) for victory in Xiamen marathon and selected in Olympic team. She finished disappointing 33rd in Athens with a time of 2:42:54 (August 22). You know, you got to pay a price if you are inexperienced. Again, she finshed behind Sun in Beijing Marathon that year (2:28:42, October 17). In 2005, she achived a feat with four sub-2:30 marathons including 2:23:24 (1st in Seoul, Mar 13), 2:29:58 (1st in Xiamen, Mar 26), 2:24:12 (5th in Helsinki, August 14) and 2:21:11 (2nd in Beijing, October 16). Noted that between Seoul and Xiamen, there were only 13 days for her to recover. Also, after she finished 2nd in Beijing behind Sun which was also part of 10th National Games, she and Sun flied to Nanjing for women's 10000m 2 days later ending up in 3rd finish (31:09) behind Olympic champion Xing Huina and Sun, 3rd in 2003 world championships. After this race, Sun, the 2nd placer in the race, failed in drug test and Zhou moved up to the 2nd place.
Since then, Zhou moved on and established herself to be the Chinese number 1. In 2006, She became the 7th woman in history to run magical sub-2:20 barrier in Seoul (2:19:51, Mar 12). She was also the 2nd Chinese woman to ran below 2:20. The 1st one is Sun (2:19:39 in 2003). In the year end, she won Asian Games in a tough condition in Doha (2:27:03, Dec, 19, 2006) and beat Japanese runners by 3 minutes.
In pre-race interview before London marathon, she confessed her training was smooth and she came here to gain more experience and learn from others. This was also her third marathon in Europe since Athens and Helsinki and she beat a strong field with at least 6 sub 2:23 runners including Lornah Kiplagat, Berhane Adere, Gete Wami, Constantina Tomescu-Dita and Benita Johnson.
As usual, Chinese media starts the hype about her becoming the definite gold favourite without knowing the complexity in marathon. There were so many examples. I thought people still remembered the world record holder, Paula Racliffe in 2004 Olympics had to stopped in the race when she was claimed to be the pre-race red hot favourite. It is a 42.195km distance. No matter how fast you run in the 1st 30km, something may just go wrong and make you stop. It can be so disappointing. After the win, Zhou said she only targets a medal and a gold is the best.
Splits for Zhou:
10km: 32:56
20km: 66:18
Half: 69:58
30km: 1:39:35
40km: 2:13:23
42.195km: 2:20:38
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