Wang Jianan: Jedi counterattack of 8.36 meters
China News Weekly reporter / Li Jing
Published in the 1055th issue of "China News Weekly" magazine in 2022.8.8
Wang Jianan has dreamed of the same scene three times - in the World Championships, the men's long jump gold medal is held in front of him.
He had a dream last year and this year, and every time he woke up, he told himself, "Be realistic." He was always worried that such a dream might not be a good dream. After all, in last year's Tokyo Olympics, he was too eager for medals or even gold medals. Abnormal, did not even enter the finals.
Because of this, the name Wang Jianan is still unfamiliar to many people until July 17, 2022.
On the morning of July 17, Beijing time, in the men's long jump final of the 2022 World Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, USA, Wang Jianan completed the "Jedi Counterattack" with the last jump of 8.36 meters, winning the gold medal for the Chinese track and field team in the Eugene World Championships. The first gold medal is also the first Chinese men's long jump gold medal in the World Championships, and the first men's track and field world champion in the history of Chinese track and field.
Whether it is a battle to become famous or a dream come true, when the gold medal in the dream really hangs on his chest, Wang Jianan feels that his generation of athletes is lucky. From a certain point of view, this is scientific After years of exploration in the concept and implementation of the strategy of "invite in and go out", China's track and field has accumulated a lot, and now the achievements he has made are also paving the way for the next generation.
"This is a gold medal that can build confidence for future long jump sports and young athletes." Wang Jianan told China News Weekly, "In the future, children will face training and competitions with a more optimistic and positive attitude. "
With the emergence of Liu Xiang, Su Bingtian and Wang Jianan, more and more Asians have entered the ranks of the world's top track and field athletes, and China's track and field is also entering a new era.
"You can win a medal just by jumping with your head up."
Perhaps it was to motivate the athletes. On the day of the long jump final, three medals of gold, silver and bronze were hung on the edge of the starting line, attracting the young people who were striving for it under the summer sun in Eugene.
"I watched it several times." Wang Jianan recalled, "But I told myself: don't watch, don't watch...don't watch!"
Until the last jump, Wang Jianan's score of 8.03 meters was only ranked fifth.
On the big screen showing the results, the third place score was 8.15 meters. "It's not particularly high. I think I should be able to rush. Even if I jump with my head up, I can win a medal." Wang Jianan's confidence is not unfounded. , his best result is 8 meters 47, far back in 2016 when he participated in the Rio Olympic Games for the first time, he jumped 8 meters 24 in the first jump in the qualifying competition.
Before coming to Eugene, Wang Jianan stopped thinking about the gold medal. He felt that his mentality was very good this time. The loss in Tokyo made him completely let go of all his burdens. During the inspection, he also observed everyone's state, silently thinking about this in his heart. The top three places in the final are scheduled: the Greek Olympic champion is the first, and the second is the Swedish boy...
A relaxed state of mind helped him, and the last jump fully demonstrated his technical level. The moment he jumped up, he vaguely felt that the jump "had".
In the days that followed, the jump that made the champion come back was still found and watched repeatedly by the audience, which has become a glorious stroke in the history of Chinese track and field.
Wang Jianan does not deny that this is also a highlight moment in his life, but these days have been relatively calm. Only by swiping Weibo and seeing a netizen posting a video of the game, Aite himself, will watch it again as a viewer.
At the end of the competition, every time he looked back at the video of the last jump, he would review and analyze the flaws in the movements with the coach Randy-the jump was still good throughout the run-up and take-off, and he and the coach had already performed the training. The desired level in the air, but the technology in the air and the moment of landing, there is still room for improvement.
For example, when he landed, Wang Jianan lay back a little and lost some of his performance. This will be the focus of his training in the future.
Before going to the Eugene World Championships, Wang Jianan shared a calendar on his mobile app on social media: "It has been 3,078 days since I came to the national team, 2,058 days have passed since the 2016 Olympic long jump finals, and the first meniscus surgery has passed. 1928 days, 1565 days since the second meniscus surgery..." He chronicled every turning point in his athletic career.
A national team staff member commented under his calendar: "Athletes are definitely the best explanation for long-termism." This year is exactly ten years since Wang Jianan switched from decathlon to long jump.
Wang Jianan, who was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province in August 1996, has been active since he was a child. Compared with his peers, he "runs very fast and jumps very far".
In 2005, Wang Jianan, who was still a primary school student, participated in the Shenhe District Games. He remembered that the event he participated in was the 100-meter sprint.
Later, Yang Keqiang recalled that he saw Wang Jianan walking on the playground at that time. Although he was not very tall, his legs were long, and he walked "jump and bump". He had the energy of an athlete, and he felt like a good seedling.
When he entered the sports school, Wang Jianan was interested in all kinds of sports, but he couldn't find any breakthroughs for a while, so he practiced decathlon: 100m, 400m, 1500m, 110m hurdles, long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, Javelin, each of the ten items is practiced.
This is the model that many high-level and powerful countries in track and field often choose when cultivating young talents - after laying a comprehensive training foundation, the development direction is determined according to the athletes' own conditions.
At the beginning of the 21st century, the National Athletics Management Center has put forward that "economic investment, individual education level, scientific and technological intervention, and management methods are the prerequisites for achievement." Learning from a track and field power country a reasonable talent selection and training model is the process of scientific training and management. important item.
Wang Jianan told China News Weekly that his previous decathlon training experience has laid a solid foundation for his physical fitness and understanding of sports.
Due to his excellent physical condition and athletic talent, in 2010, Wang Jianan was introduced to the Xuzhou City Track and Field Team, and was subsequently selected to the Jiangsu Provincial Sports Team.
In February 2012, Wang Jianan represented Jiangsu Province in the national indoor men's decathlon competition. Under the age of 16, he scored 7063 points in the decathlon competition, which was the second best among the world's young athletes in 2012. score.
In this all-around competition, his long jump score reached 7.80 meters, which is already at the national level.
Zhao Lei, his coach in the provincial team, told him, "Stop practicing all-around, and practice the long jump."
As it turns out, this is the right choice.
A few months later, at the National Athletics Championships in September 2012, Wang Jianan, who had just passed his 16th birthday, won the long jump championship with a score of 8.04 meters, which was the first time he broke the 8-meter mark in his career.
After that, he completely focused on the long jump single event and began to move towards the gold medal 10 years later.
"Go out, please come in"
Since Liu Yuhuang broke the 8-meter mark in the early 1980s, the Chinese men's long jump has been seeking a breakthrough, but most of the athletes' best results were achieved in domestic or Asian competitions.
In order to break through the bottleneck and replace the previous hard training with scientific training, the China Athletics Management Center began to learn advanced international experience. Before the Beijing Olympic Games, it proposed to "require achievements from scientific training". "Strategy, through the employment of high-level foreign teachers, the establishment of foreign training bases and other cooperation methods, seeking to promote Chinese athletes to quickly move closer to the world's first-class under the advanced training concept.
Thanks to this strategy, the Chinese track and field team hired Randy Huntington as the foreign coach of the long jump team in 2013. The legendary American coach has coached triple jump legend Willie Banks and long jump world record holder Mike. Powell.
This year, Wang Jianan was selected into the long jump national team established by Randy and became the first batch of disciples of Randy.
Randy was first known to the Chinese because with his help, Su Bingtian burst out with amazing potential at the age of 26 to 31. After Randy improved his starting, kicking and exerting force, he finally He helped "Su Shen" set the Asian record of 9.83 in the Tokyo Olympics at the age of 32.
In Wang Jianan's case, from the run-up, aerial technique to take-off, each of his technical movements has also been carefully shaped by Randy. "Between each jump, he will emphasize to me the accuracy of the approach and rhythm." Wang Kanan said.
From the day Randy took over Wang Jianan's group of long jumpers, he conducted a detailed data analysis of each individual, and formulated different technical plans based on the explosive force data of height, body length, leg length, and different weights.
Then record each person's approach speed, take-off angle, stride length, and stride frequency, and his scientific research team will calculate and strengthen weak links.
Randy's team includes not only medics, physical trainers, nutritionists, and scientific researchers, but also biomechanics experts.
Randy said in a previous interview: "Chinese long jumpers have good low-speed explosive power (biased strength), but high-speed explosiveness (biased speed) is relatively poor, so I put more emphasis on speed. Speed up first, and then let the technology adapt to the new speed. ."
Unlike some coaches who are used to "beating" players, Randy likes to give players confidence through encouragement.
Wang Jianan remembers that since joining the national team, Randy has always praised him, saying that he is good and that his ability is no problem.
What impressed Wang Jianan the most was that before he set off for the World Championships, because the University of Oregon was Randy's alma mater and where Wang Jianan won the World Youth Championships 8 years ago, Randy said to Wang Jianan: It's my home and your home, no one can beat you in our home." Randy's words became Wang Jianan's reassurance when facing powerful European and American rivals.
After Randy became the coach of the national long jump team, the Chinese men's long jump team began to exert force, and Wang Jianan also emerged on the international stage.
At the Asian Championships in July 2013, 17-year-old Wang Jianan won the long jump championship with a score of 7.95 meters in the absence of Li Jinzhe, the "first brother" of China's long jump at that time.
On May 21, 2014, in the men's long jump final of the IAAF World Athletics Challenge Beijing Station, Wang Jianan jumped 8.09 meters to win the men's long jump championship.
In July of the same year, he won a gold medal at the Eugene World Junior Championships.
In the 2015 Beijing World Track and Field Championships, three players of the Chinese men's long jump team, Li Jinzhe, Gao Xinglong, and Wang Jianan, appeared in the finals at the same time.
In the end, Wang Jianan won the bronze medal, which is also the first world championship long jump medal in Asian track and field history.
At that time, some people in the industry predicted that the best era for China's long jump has come.
Wang Jianan, who made history, then represented the Chinese team in various international competitions. In the men's long jump final at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Wang Jianan won the fifth place with a score of 8.17 meters.
In the 2018 National Athletics Championships and Asian Games Trials, Wang Jianan jumped 8.47 meters, which not only tied the national record for men's long jump held by Li Jinzhe, but also Wang Jianan's personal best result, which ranked third in the annual world rankings that year. bit.
In 2020, he ranked first in the world with a season best of 8.36 meters.
Until the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Jianan maintained a steady and good performance, and everyone was looking forward to his Olympic results.
Wang Jianan said: "If you asked me the goal of the Tokyo Olympics during that time, I would definitely say that it was going for the medals, or even the gold medals."
After the fall of Tokyo
"In Tokyo, I made a big mistake." After winning the World Championships gold medal, Wang Jianan said this to many media.
In the men's long jump qualifying competition at the Tokyo Olympics, Wang Jianan jumped 7.81 meters farthest and missed the final.
You know, when he was under 16 years old, when he first participated in a domestic competition and was competing in the decathlon event, his long jump score was 7.80 meters.
According to people in the industry, the long jump project is more contingent and has a low error-tolerance rate. This kind of competition is a special test of psychological quality. In other sports, it can help athletes to be excited and competitive. In this project, it may not be a bonus item. .
Before leaving for Tokyo, the desire to win the card was too strong, but it became a psychological burden for Wang Jianan.
His extraordinary desire to win has affected his training. Looking back now, he feels that he is a little impetuous and too anxious, so that he has not communicated well with Coach Randy in some aspects, resulting in disagreements.
The failure of the Tokyo Olympics made him completely correct his mentality. When he came back, he set a rule for himself-no matter what the coach said, he would obey what he said, even if Randy said "1+1=3", he had to obey him.
He also takes the Tokyo game supplies with him. Some people think that the supplies in the losing venues are not good. Wang Jianan doesn't think so. He feels that no matter how big a failure is, he has to face it instead of avoiding it. Besides, these game supplies can always be reminded. He, learn from the lessons in Tokyo.
Under such a mentality, all the training plans, training directions and technical improvements and adjustments made by Randy for Wang Jianan during the winter training this year have received his active cooperation.
As a former decathlon athlete, Wang Jianan has excellent speed conditions. However, during the connection process of the run-up, turn and take-off, he made too much preparation for take-off, resulting in the loss of the horizontal speed of the run-up and affecting the distance after taking off.
In response to Wang Jianan's slowdown in the first two steps of the board, Randy made him gradually proficient in the last two steps before the board during winter training through the run-up of different steps, and then through the whole process of run-up and take-off practice, so that his speed ability and take-off are connected. Technology achieves effective tandem.
In the winter training, he cooperated with Randy tacitly, and improved the details of the approach and take-off connection, which laid the foundation for his successful leap at the World Championships.
At this time, the Chinese track and field team is changing itself at a more basic institutional level while acquiring more advanced concepts and coaching levels from foreign teachers.
In 2019, the Chinese Athletics Association split the original 3 training departments into 8 to improve the level of refined training and professional management.
And increase policy incentives, coaches implement an annual salary system, creating a pattern of healthy competition between domestic and foreign teachers.
Tian Xiaojun, vice-chairman of the Chinese Athletics Association, once said in an interview: "It's not that our athletes have made so much progress after the arrival of foreign teachers. In fact, by introducing foreign teachers, it also promotes domestic coaches in training concepts and combination of competition and training. In other aspects, we should move closer to the international high level as soon as possible, and form a pattern of internal and external competition and multiple competitions.”
No matter Su Bingtian's "old age" breakthrough or Wang Jianan's counterattack to win gold, they are the epitome of China's track and field approaching the world-class level in its exploration.
And Wang Jianan is not yet 26 years old. When people couldn't help but turn their attention to the Paris Olympics in two years, he admitted to "China News Weekly" that his experience and lessons are that once the goal is to focus on the ranking and results of the competition On the contrary, it will not promote the preparation and training. In this case, it is better to focus on each current training.
What's more, there is another big thing to worry about right now. In more than a month, his child is about to be born.
As for those farther future goals, he chose not to mention or not want to.
However, Wang Jianan talked about a childhood dream-to be a hero, so he likes to watch Jackie Chan movies. When he was a child, he thought that if he was not an athlete, he would become a firefighter, because he could help and save people.
Now, he has stepped out of the bottom of the setback and returned to the top, and it seems that he has explained another kind of heroism.
"China News Weekly" Issue 29, 2022
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