In 6.59 seconds, 33-year-old Su Bingtian announced his strong return with such a eye-catching 60m indoor race.
In the early morning of February 3, Beijing time, at the 2023 Gothenburg indoor competition in Sweden, Su Bingtian ran 6.59 seconds in the men's 60-meter final to win the first championship of the new season.
This is Su's first appearance in an official competition since the men's 100m semifinals at the World Championships in Oregon on July 17, 2022. After 200 days, Su Bingtian started the journey of 2023 with the "red flag" of the new season.
Su Bingtian won the championship. Video source: Chinese track and field team (00:24)
Train with a race and kill Dongtian Wangyang
The Gothenburg Games is a D-class challenge in the IAAF indoor intercontinental tour, and because the level of the event is not high, there are not many top players signing up to participate, and Su Bingtian has never officially competed in Sweden before.
The reason why they chose to make their debut in the new season is also because Su Bingtian and his team only flew to Europe at the end of January to start preparing for indoor competitions - before this match, Su Bingtian adjusted the time difference less than a week.
Training in a 60-meter final of just the right intensity allows him to start the season mentally and physically in a relatively relaxed state.
However, Su Bingtian's indoor debut also encountered some small "twists and turns".
After running 6.75 seconds in the heats, Su Bingtian easily advanced to the final. However, according to media reports, after the first shot of the Group A final, officials found that "someone ran away", and then the referee recalled the athlete to verify, but in the end no one was sent off.
The snatching rematch is a psychological challenge for all athletes, but Su Bingtian has maintained a fairly stable play.
When the starting gun sounded for the second time, Su Bingtian's starting did not fall behind, raised his head, accelerated, sprinted... Almost every technical step maintains a strong rhythm.
Although the Japanese athlete Higashida Wangyang next to him kept narrowing the gap with Su Bingtian in the last 20 meters or so, and tried to overtake, Su Bingtian was not disturbed by his opponent, maintained his rhythm, and was the first to cross the finish line.
In this way, Su Bingtian beat Dongtian Wangyang with an advantage of 0.01 seconds, freezing his debut in 2023 at 6.59 seconds.
When Su Bingtian set the Asian record of 9.83 seconds in the 100 meters, the first 60 meters were timed in 6.29 seconds, which is the fastest time recorded in history in 60 meters.
The fastest human is 60 meters
From Su Bingtian's opening of the "10-second mark" to setting an Asian record of 9.83 seconds, the first half has always been his advantage. At the competition in Gothenburg, Sweden, the organizers deliberately highlighted a "selling point":
That is, when Su Bingtian set the Asian record of 9.83 seconds in 100 meters, the first 60 meters were 6.29 seconds, which is the fastest time recorded in history in 60 meters.
Indeed, this "selling point" is also an important reason why Su Bingtian has been able to achieve excellent results in indoor seasons.
In the 2018 indoor season, Su Bingtian first won three indoor races in Germany, and then won the silver medal in Birmingham Indoor World Championships with a time of 6.42 seconds.
This was not only Su Bingtian's personal best, but also the third time he broke the men's 60m Asian record in 36 days.
In 2019, Su Bingtian completed a "three-game winning streak" in eight days at Athlone, Birmingham and Düsseldorf.
After the World Championships in Doha that year, Su Bingtian suffered from injuries, in order to ensure his Tokyo Olympic journey, Su Bingtian chose to focus on training and did not compete until the 2021 indoor athletics invitational, Su Bingtian returned to the field and won the championship in 6.49 seconds.
Before that match, Su Bingtian had not participated in an official competition for 523 days.
Su Bingtian is still engaged in teaching.
Champion model
Similar to the situation in 2021, Su Bingtian also suffered a knee injury before and after last year's World Championships in Oregon, so he ran two shots of the World Championships throughout the season in 2022, after which he focused on his training.
Judging from Su Bingtian's performance in each past season, when he ran satisfactorily in the indoor season, he always delivered a brilliant report card in the outdoor 100-meter race that season.
2023 is still a challenging year for Su Bingtian and Chinese sprinters, in addition to the World Championships in Athletics in Budapest, they will also have to meet the challenge of the Japanese sprinters at the Hangzhou Asian Games on their doorstep.
According to domestic media, after last year's World Championships in Oregon, foreign coach Randy Huntington, who had previously helped Su Bingtian make history, did not renew his contract with the Chinese team, which is also a big change for Su Bingtian's team.
"However, Coach Randy has left Su Bingtian's champion model, and Su Bingtian has always figured out his own training, so he can arrange his own training by himself."
According to a national team staff member close to Su Bingtian's team, Su Bingtian began to help the young players around him like a coach very early, especially in the just-concluded winter training, and Su Bingtian has also been sharing his experience in training.
"Judging from the situation of winter training, Su Bingtian mainly focuses on strength training, but for athletes of this age, his training intensity is not low."
Now, he doesn't want to stop
On the training ground, 33-year-old Su Bingtian has begun to transition his identity and role in the team, but on the track, Su Bingtian is still the leader who runs at full speed.
"For me, being able to run for a year is counted as a year, and I won't stop as long as my physical condition is okay."
This is what Su Bingtian said in an interview with the "Yangcheng Evening News" last year, he has always been an athlete who likes to replace words with actions, and the 6.59 seconds when he returned to indoor competition has proved his efforts in winter training.
Next, Su Bingtian will also participate in a B-class event in Montville, France, and an A-class event in Levine, France, and as the level of the event increases, he will also face more top-level "flying man" challenges.
Judging from the current situation of the game, Su Bingtian, who remains healthy, has every chance to write more stories in the indoor arena.