Advantageous projects accumulate power for China's race walking to "walk" towards the Tokyo Olympic track
In the recently concluded 2021 National Race Walking Championships and Tokyo Olympic Trials, the list of Chinese race walking teams for the Tokyo Olympics was officially released. From the results of the men’s single national record and the women’s two world records, the goal of the Chinese race walking decisive battle in Tokyo can be seen. : Yang Jiayu, Liu Hong, and Cheeyang Shi will strive to win the top 3 women’s 20 kilometers race walking; Wang Kaihua, Cai Zelin, and Zhang Jun will attack the men’s 20 kilometers race walking gold medal; Luo Yadong, Wang Qin and Bian Tongda strive to compete in the men’s 50 kilometers race walking The "last battlefield" touches the medal.
There are 3 race walking events for the Tokyo Olympics, including men's, women's 20km and men's 50km.
According to the selection method, the top three in this trial plus a substitute will be used as our country's lineup to participate in the Tokyo Olympics for training. Therefore, the competition in each event is very fierce.
At the Tokyo Olympics, the women's 20-kilometer race walk has the greatest hope for gold.
In this traditionally advantageous event, 19 athletes have reached the Olympic results.
At the 2019 Doha World Championships in Athletics, Chinese women will take the top three places in the event, making it the strongest team in history. Judging from the lineup for the Tokyo Olympics, the overall strength is stronger than two years ago.
Before the trials, a coach revealed that in addition to the world record holder Liu Hong, Yang Jiayu, Cheeyang Shijie, Lu Xiuzhi and other players have already rushed to 1 hour and 25 minutes. Their goal is to hit 1 hour, 24 minutes and 38 seconds. World record.
In the end, the 1996 young player Yang Jiayu directly raised the world record to 1 hour 23 minutes 49 seconds, breaking into the 1 hour 24 minutes mark; veteran Liu Hong also broke his own record and won the runner-up with 1 hour 24 minutes 27 seconds; Three sisters Qiyangshi also created a personal best in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 45 seconds.
With performance as a guarantee, the three have their own expectations for the Tokyo Olympics.
Unlike when he won the Rio Olympics, Liu Hong, who participated in the Olympics for the fourth time, is already a "mother player" and has experienced difficult stages such as fading out of the arena and returning after giving birth.
But at the Doha World Championships in 2019, at the age of 32, she proved her strength with a 20-kilometer champion and a women's 50-kilometer world record.
After the trials, she said frankly: "I cherish the competition more and more, and the goal of coming back is to surpass myself." For the Tokyo Olympics, she will play as the defending champion.
Yang Jiayu wants to "make up for regrets."
In 2016, she also went to the Rio Olympics with the team, but as a substitute, she failed to get a chance to play; as the defending champion, at the Doha World Track and Field Championships, Yang Jiayu was sent off two kilometers before the finish line and failed to finish the race. .
Since then, she has constantly adjusted her status and made up for technical shortcomings, focusing on making breakthroughs in the Tokyo Olympics.
In this trial, Yang Jiayu suffocated her energy, "I came to break the world record." She said after the match, "I hope that in the Tokyo Olympics, I can maintain my momentum and secure the three gold medals."
Veteran Qiyang Shi will also participate in the Olympics for the third time. At the Doha World Championships, she won the runner-up. She ridiculed herself as the "second in the millennium" and said frankly: "The Tokyo Olympics may be my last chance." , She devoted herself to training without reservation, and achieved breakthroughs in the trials. “After 9 years, I finally broke my personal best.” When all three of them broke through the 1 hour 25 minute mark, she was convinced that the Chinese women’s race walked in At the Tokyo Olympics, "the scene in Doha must be reproduced and the top three must be taken."
The men's 20-kilometer race walking is also an advantageous event in China's track and field, but it does not yet have the group advantage of the women's team.
In the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Chinese team won the men's 20-kilometer race walking gold medal. After entering the Tokyo Olympic cycle, the Chinese men's walking strength declined. The best performer Wang Kaihua won the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games. In addition, both World Championships ended in seventh place.
At the same time, Japanese race walking athletes suddenly emerged. In the 2019 World Championships, it was the Japanese star Lihe Shanxi who won the gold medal in the event. The Japanese team also won the world's top five best results last season. The Tokyo Olympics will compete at home. The Japanese team has regarded this project as an important gold medal point.
However, in this trial, the champion Wang Kaihua broke the national record of 1 hour, 16 minutes and 54 seconds, and could rank third in the world performance rankings of the event, with the world record of 1 hour 16 minutes and 36 minutes held by the Japanese player Yusuke Suzuki. The difference in seconds is only 18 seconds.
This result boosted the morale of the Chinese team and saw the hope of making gold in the event at the Tokyo Olympics. Wang Kaihua said, "This time our overall results are good. We hope to fight the Japanese team. The Chinese team at the Tokyo Olympics The performance is worth looking forward to."
However, it is worth noting that both Wang Kaihua, 27, and Zhang Jun, a teenager born in 1998, participated in the Olympics for the first time. The two who lacked Olympic experience still need to strive for success under the leadership of veteran Cai Zelin.
Tsai Zelin, who is about to celebrate his 30th birthday, once rubbed shoulders with the medal in London Olympics and won the runner-up in the Rio Olympics with a time of 1 hour 19 minutes 26 seconds. After nearly 5 years of "suffering", he once again boarded. At the Olympics, he hopes to be in the top three, "It's best to realize the dream of champions."
In contrast, the men’s 50-kilometer race is not a gold spot. Since Si Tianfeng won the bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics, no athlete has been able to get on the podium of the Olympic and World Championships. Luo Yadong, who won the trial in this trial, once won the gold medal in 2019. Won the 5th place in the World Championships.
However, due to the IAAF’s plan to make major adjustments to the race walking event, 50 kilometers may disappear in the world championships after 2022. The Tokyo Olympics may be the final battlefield for Luo Yadong, Wang Qin, and Bian Tongda. Therefore, the Olympic medals will be awarded. Initiating an impact is also the wish of the three.
Race walking has always had an important position in the history of Chinese track and field.
After the "first man in track and field in China" Xu Yongjiu achieved a zero breakthrough in my country's track and field world championships in 1983, in 1992, at the Barcelona Olympics, Chen Yueling won the women's 10 km race walking champion, winning China's track and field in the history of the Olympic Games. The first gold medal.
By 1995, Li Zewen won the 17th World Cup of 20km walking championship, becoming the first men's world champion in the history of track and field in our country.
However, since Wang Liping won the gold medal in the Sydney Olympics in 2000, China's race walking has missed the competition medal for many years, which stimulated China's track and field to make reforms.
In recent years, "bringing in and going out", which has laid an important foundation for breakthroughs in various Chinese track and field events, is to start with the race walking project. With the cooperation of foreign teachers and local coaches and the establishment of an international competition platform, starting from the London Olympics, China's race walking once again demonstrated its strength not to be underestimated.
In the Rio Olympics, Wang Zhen and Liu Hong won the men's and women's 20-kilometer walking gold medals respectively. Cai Zelin won the men's 20-kilometer walking silver medal, and Lu Xiuzhi won the women's 20-kilometer walking bronze medal. The Chinese race walking team achieved a bumper harvest.
The new crown pneumonia epidemic has made the Tokyo Olympics face special challenges, and athletes' preparation and training have also been affected.
Tian Xiaojun, vice chairman of the Chinese Athletics Association, revealed: “The foreign teachers we hired could not join the team and are now coaching remotely. They cannot go abroad to compete, foreign high-level players cannot enter, and even international referees cannot go to the country to judge.” However, It can be seen from the final results of this trial that even if the preparations are affected, some results have been achieved in the winter training.
"Next, we will create an environment similar to the Tokyo Olympics internally, with strict requirements, and strive to assess and test training in accordance with the Olympic standards." Tian Xiaojun introduced. Next, the team will specifically conduct targeted training based on the venue and climatic conditions in Tokyo. Training, "Due to the epidemic restrictions, it is very difficult to go to Sapporo, the site of the Tokyo Olympic race walking event, for adaptive training. However, there may be a test event in Japan in May. We strive to send special personnel to inspect the venue and make corresponding preparations." He emphasized that race walking is an advantageous event in China's track and field, and the task of competing for gold medals cannot be changed, "but we need to make further efforts to grasp the technology, consolidate our strength, and strive to achieve the level of trials in the Olympics."
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Liang Xuan Source: China Youth Daily