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.
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