Comparison: Chinese athletes in Asian track and field championships and National Games

Just less than a month after National Games (NG), Asian indoor games and Asian track and field championships (AC) were held in Asia. Here is the comparison of the results of Chinese athletes between NG and AC. Only the athletes competing in AC are listed accompanied with their NG results:

NG/AC
M100m
Zhang Peimeng: 10.32 (2nd)/10.28 (1st)
Guo Fan: 10.41 (3rd)/10.37 (3rd)
NG champion: Lu Bin 10.27
Both ran slightly faster than NG. Hope Zhang will take down the NR soon.

M200m
Wang Chengliang: 21.00 (4th)/21.54(p), 21.61(sf)
Liang Jiahong: 21.26 (7th)/22.79(h)
NG champion: Li Mingxuan 20.79
Both below par

M400m
Liu Xiaosheng: 46.02 (1st)/46.17 (2nd, h), 46.55 (1st)
Zhou Jie (ZJ): 48.88 (16th,h)/48.28 (15th,h)
Liu maintained his form pretty well

M800m
Li Xiangyu: 1:49.19 (1st)/1:58.30 (18th, last in heat)
Xia Xiudong (ZJ): 1:50.39 (3rd)/1:52.61 (10th, heat)
Both were top 3 in NG but did terrrible in AC.

M1500m
Yu Zhiyang (FJ): 3:47.77 (10th)/ 3:47.58 (8th,h), 3:49.48 (6th)
Zhang Guolin (SD): 3:48.65 (11th)/3:47.53 (5th,h), 3:52.41 (8th)
NG champion: Sun Wenli 3:44.98
Both did better than NG

M5000m
Tian Mengxu (HN): 13:39.53 (2nd)/14:09.70 (5th)
Yang Dinghong (PLA): 13:50.43 (9th)/14:18.00 (7th)
NG champion: Lin Xiangqian 13:38.77
Below par

M 10000m
Dong Guojian (YN): 28:17.60 (2nd)/29:13.44 (5th)
Cheng Tao (SD): 29:36.80 (10th)/29:38.74 (7th)
NG champion: Tian Mengxu 28:15.06
Below par, but both men's 000 and 10000m runners have shown great improvement in the last 2 years. The time is improving. Hopefully, 1st sub-28:00 mark will come shortly.

M3000m steeplechase
Lin Xiangqian: 8:27.14 (2nd)/8:34.13 (2nd)
Yang Le (Inner Mongolia): 8:46.69 (6th)/ 8:50.58 (7th)
NG champion: Sun Wenli 8:25.11
Lin is the only few who dares to challenge the former Africans. It is the 2nd major challenge after 2006 AG when he led all his way in most of the race and finished 3rd at the end.

M110mh
Liu Xiang: 13.34 (1st)/13.50 (1st)
Shi Dongpeng: 13.63 (3rd)/13.67 (2nd)
Liu and Shi are always Asian top 110m hurdler


M400mh
Chen Dayu: 51.28 (4th)/ 52.61 (9th, h)
NG champion: Meng Yan 50.04
Chen is still inexperienced.

MHJ
Huang Haiqiang: 2.23m (3rd)/2.23m (2nd)
Chen Cheng: 2.20m (4th)/2.05m (12th)
NG champion: Zhang Shufeng 2.28m
Huang still has not regained his 2006 form (2.32m).

MLJ
Li Jinzhe: 8.18m (2nd)/8.16m (1st)
Yu Zhenwei (PLA): 7.80m (8th)/7.96m (3rd)
NG champion: Zhang Xiaoyi 8.27m
Another consistent performance for Li who has been jumping 8m++ on many occasions this year including recent world champ. Yu also showed his usual near 8m jump.

MTJ
Zhu Shujing: 17.41m (2nd)/16.67m (2nd)
NG champion: Li Yanxi 17.59m
With injuries, it's hard to get Zhu to repeat his 17.4m jump this time.

MPV
Liu Feiliang: 5.60m (1st)/5.60m (1st)
Yang Quan: 5.60m (2nd)/5.45m (2nd)
Liu requested 5.80m in NG and AC. His focus is no longer mediocre 5.50-5.70 region. Maybe too ambigious at the moment. Yang is still not very consistent.

MSP
Guo Yanxiang: 19.11m (2nd)/19.07m (4th)
Zhang Jun: 17.78m (10th)/19.15m (3rd)
NG champion: Jia Peng 19.20m
Zhang has been the domestic leader this year but did terribly in NG (due to the pressure from the authorities, probably) and came back strong with a 19m++ throw. Guo did exactly what he can perform in the competition.

MHT
Ma Liang: 71.01 (1st)/ 70.08 (3rd)
Qi Dakai: 70.77 (2nd)/65.60m (8th)
Ma has been a 74m thrower once so 70m is not too bad but it is still tough for these chinese throwers to compete with the Asian best.

MDT
Wu Tao: 51.58 (13th)/59.27 (3rd)
Wu Jian: 60.07 (2nd)/NM
NG champion: Li Shaojie 60.39m
A falling event for China with Iranian dominating with 64m++ throw. 59-61m no longer can win Asian title for Chinese throwers.

MJT
Wang Qingbo: 78.73m (3rd)/80.25m (2nd)
Qin Qiang: 77.45m (4th)/80.08m (3rd)
NG champion: Chen Qi 79.57m
WC bronze medalist Murakami won the event with ease but these Chinese throwers really raised up the bar to challenge a little. It's also the 1st 80m throw for Wang. Both did far better than NG. Hope still exists in AG next year.

M20km walk
Li Jianbo: 1:19:10 (2nd)/1:22:55 (1st)
Chu Yafei: 1:20:27 (3rd)/1:22:56 (2nd)
NG champion: Wang Hao 1:18:13
Li and Chu have been the no.2 and 3 in China so it's not surprised they won. The times were considered good.

M Dec
Zhu Hengjun: 7708 (3rd)/7200 (3rd)
Liu Haibo: 7427 (4th)/DNF
Zhu still comes short to be a strong contender in Asia. Liu seems to have one strong discipline: high jump (2.12m) and I don't know when he will improve in others.

W100m
Tao Yujia: 11.68 (3rd)/11.63 (4th)
Chen Jue: 11.51 (2nd)/11.78 (6th)
NG champion: Jiang Lan 11.50
Tao still has a lot to improve in her mid race. She has a great start but always fades in the middle.

W200m
Jiang Lan: 23.48 (2nd)/23.65 (3rd)
Lai Weijie: 23.81 (4th)/24.08 (5th)
NG champion: Chen Jue 23.45
Both did slightly slower

W400m
Chen Lin: 52.96 (2nd)/53.55 (2nd)
Tang Xiaoyin: 53.39 (4th)/ 54.10 (6th)
NG champion: Huang Xiaoxiao 52.23
A weak event and Chinese 400m runners are getting slower.

W800m
Zhou Haiyan: 2:3.00 (1st)/2:04.89 (1st)
Liu Qing: 2:05.50 (4th)/2:05.62 (1st, h), 2:07.36 (5th)
Zhou still has a lot to prove after NG and AC champion although she wants to be next "Liu Xiang" in women 800m. Liu, after winning NG titles 4 years ago, has not improved by 0.01s for last 4 years, is finally doomed to fail in both NG and AC.

W1500m
Liu Fang: 4:18.62 (4th)/4:33.35 (2nd)
Zhou Haiyang: -/4:32.74 (1st)
NG Champion: Xue Fei 4:18.26
Liu has been a consistent 4:13-4:15 runner but it's still not very optimistic for her to excel, even at Asian level.

W5000m
Xue Fei: 15:11.72 (1st)/16:05.19 (1st)
Xue did not improve since 2007 at 15:02. If she is still comfortable with her 15:10-15:20 pace, she will no longer be able to challenge the world best.

W10000m
Bai Xue: 31:17.62 (1st)
Wang Jiali: 33:14.68 (11th)

Bai is still shadowed by the controversy of her coach so her future is still a uncertainty although she is determined to win more next year and to be in London. Wang should be more comfortable to stick around in the domestic scene.

W100mh
Sun Yawei: 13.17 (2nd)/13.19 (1st)
NG champion: Liu Jing 13.15
Sun is a vet student who has been complimented by Liu Xiang's coach, Sun Haiping. A lot to do to help her excel. Like her senior in Jiangsu province, Su Yiping, peaked at 12.9 form and ran 12.70 once at wind-aided condition. Unless her training method can be refined, Sun would still be a 12 high and 13 low hurdler.

W400mh
Yang Qi: 56.83 (3rd)/59.62 (4th)
NG champion: Huang Xiaoxiao 55.49
Still very young runner from Sichuan who does both 400m hurdler and 800m which I don't see it very often in China.

WLJ
Chen Yaling: 6.58m (2nd)/6.28m (2nd)
Bao sha: 5.88m (17th, h)/DNS
NG chempion: Lu Minjia (ZJ) 6.74m
Damn it, Chen. She did heaps of 6.5 and her best was only 6.62m. Being a 25yo, there is not much time she can catch up. Bao did quite well in the 1st half of 2009 but faded in the NG terribly. Lu won the NG at 6.74m which is the longest for 4 years. Hope she is not just a one-jump winner.

WTJ
Xu Tingting: 13.69m (5th)/14.11m (2nd)
NG champion: Chen Yufei (SD) 14.11m
Xu equaled the winning mark in NG. She will do better next year.

WHJ
Zheng Xingjuan: 1.95m (1st)/1.93m (1st)
Gu Xuan (PLA): 1.88m (3rd)/
Finally, Zheng won her 1st Asian champion at 1.93m. Not sure if this year is her final breakthrough (hopefully not) but she really carries the women's high jump for China.

WPV
Li Caixia: 4.40m (2nd)/4.30m (1st)
Wu Sha: 4.40m (1st)/4.15m (2nd)
Still looking for the 2nd 4.50m candidate after Gao Shuying. Bunch of 4.4 vaulters have emerged but the space and time seem to stop there. Wu has been at 4.30m back in 2004 or 2005 but only improved to 4.40m this year. What's wrong with her training?

WSP
Gong Lijiao 20.35m (1st)/19.04m (1st)
Liu Xiaorong 18.41m (4th)/17.55 (2nd)
Gong demonstrated her consistency in 2009 and won bronze in world champ. she is now a 20m thrower.

WJT
Liu Chunhua 60.65m (1st)/57.93m (1st)
Li Lingwei 55.72 (7th)/55.13m (2nd)
A bunch of comet-like throwers have been streaking across the sky but there are no consistent one. From Xue Juan to Chang Chunfeng, no Asian game title has been won since 1994.

WHT
Zhang Wenxiu 74.25m (1st)/72.07 (1st)
Hao Shuai 67.63m (2nd)/65.87m (2nd)
Zhang is undisputedly no. 1 HT in Asia but it seems that she has not been able to improve since 2007. Now, WR is at 77-78 region and Zhang is still at 74-75m.

WDT
Song Aimin 65.44m (2nd)/63.90m (1st)
Ma Xuejun 60.64m (4th)/63.63 (2nd)
Song still showed her experience is important with last throw getting past Ma's leading mark.

W20km walk
Liu Hong: 1:28:11 (1st)/DQ
Yang Yawei: 1:31:11 (5th)/1:34:11 (2nd)
Except Liu, more walkers should step up or Japanese walkers will eat away the pie.

W hep
Mei Yiduo 5689 (1st)/5460 (3rd)
Sun Lu 5363 (3rd)/4963 (4th)
Another unimproving event. The NG winning score has been getting lower and lower.