Su Xiongfeng (CHN) (© Getty Images)
Competitors in the second indoor meet of the season in China held in Nanjing from Wednesday to Thursday (10 – 11 March) naturally didn’t feature in the Chinese team for the World Indoor Championships as they have travelled to Doha already. But there still were a few stars in this meet with 22-year-old Su Xiongfeng rising to a new level in the men’s Long Jump.
The youngster was a surprise winner at the 2007 City Games with an 8.07m personal best at the age of 20 and then placed second at the 2008 Olympic Trials with a 8.08m improvement to his PB but other than that before today he didn’t have much to look back to.
But one day can change it all, last season Su Xiongfeng best competition came in the right place when he jumped his season’s best 8.05m at the National Games placing fourth.
Now on Thursday afternoon (11) he crushed the Asian indoor record with a 8.27m jump also erasing Huang Geng’s 14-year-old national indoor record 8.23m. The previous Asian indoor mark 8.24m had stood since February 2008 when Mohamed Salman Al-Khuwalidi of Saudi Arabia jumped that distance to win the Asian Indoor Championships in Doha.
Su Xiongfeng was a clear winner today putting exactly half a metre in between himself and the second placed athlete Rikiya Saruyama of Japan who jumped 7.77m.
No other real world class results were seen in the competition. Wang Liangliang won the men’s Triple Jump with 16.23m and former national indoor record holder (5.61m in 2007) Yang Quan topped the Pole Vault with a lowly 5.15m result. Chen Cheng won the High Jump with a 2.20m clearance and Huang Hao was fastest in the 60m Hurdles clocking a 7.83s season’s best before Jiang Fan’s 7.84sec for second place.
Newcomer Lu Shangbin was fastest in the 200m winning in a 21.25sec personal best and Guo Fan won the 60m in 6.75sec.
In the women’s events National Games 100m winner Jiang Lan started her season with a 7.47sec win in the 60m but just barely as Lu Tingting had the same time 7.47 for the second place.
Japanese Ayako Jinnouchi won the 800m in 2:05.67 and Sun Yawei was fastest in the 60m Hurdles clocking 8.32sec in the final and 8.33 in the heats. Chen Yufei won the women’s Triple Jump with a 13.95m personal best and Lin Yanmei was second also with a PB 13.87m. 19-year-old Meng Qianqian won the Shot Put with 17.17m just edging 60-metre discus thrower Yang Yanbo, who set a shot personal best of 17.07m for the second place.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
