Xing's 1st competition lost to high school girl, Zhu Yingying (behind)
Saturday, April 28, 2007
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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