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.