It is too difficult to set ten consecutive championships at the Asian Games! Athletics 1: China once dominated the world, and now Japan has surpassed it
On the evening of June 29, 23-year-old rookie Zhu Shenglong ran a personal best of 13.25 seconds in the National Athletics Championships and World Championships and Asian Games Trials, and he successfully won the championship while also winning the 2023 Budapest World Championships and Hangzhou Asian Games tickets. It is worth mentioning that 13.25 seconds is the best domestic time in the last three seasons.
For many years, the men's 110m hurdles has been a traditional dominant event in Chinese athletics, and Chinese athletes have won 11 of the 12 Asian Games since 1974, including nine consecutive championships since 1986. During this period, Cui Lin, Wang Xunhua, Yu Zhicheng, Li Tong, Chen Yanhao, Liu Xiang and Xie Wenjun 7 stars have successively reached the Asian Games championship podium, and the brightest star of them is Liu Xiang, who achieved three consecutive championships between 2002 and 2010, and still holds the Asian Games record of 13.09 seconds. In the last two Asian Games, Xie Wenjun took over the mantle of Liu Xiang, and he won two consecutive championships, raising the Chinese men's sprint Asian Games record to the height of nine consecutive titles.
Does Zhu Shenglong's rise in the national championship mean that China's short span is expected to achieve ten consecutive championships in the Asian Games? All indications: hard!
For quite some time, Chinese athletes were the absolute rulers of the Asian race in the men's 110m hurdles. Take 2012 as an example, Liu Xiang's personal best time was 12.92 seconds, ranking second in the world rankings. The best result elsewhere in Asia was Japan's Hideki OMURO, who was 72nd in the season with a personal best of 13.54 seconds. The Chinese players in front of him are not only Liu Xiang, but also Xie Wenjun, Shi Dongpeng, Ji Wei and Jiang Fan.
After Liu Xiang retired, Xie Wenjun became the new brother of Asia, and his world ranking has been ranked first in Asia from 2013 to 2020, including a personal all-time best time of 13.17 seconds in 2019, ranking seventh in the world that year.
In 2021, the Japanese athlete achieved a comeback, with Junsuke Izumiya and Taio KANAI running 13.06 seconds and 13.16 seconds, respectively, the former ranking fifth in the world that year. IN 2022, JAPAN CONTINUES TO LEAD ASIA IN THE MEN'S SHORT SPAN, WITH Shunya takayama in ninth place in the season with a time of 13.10 SECONDS. Heading into the season, Japan's upward momentum continued strongly, with Junsuke Izumitani setting a personal best time of 13.04 seconds, which temporarily put him fourth in this year's world rankings. Rachid Muratake and Takayama both ran 13.25 seconds. In contrast, the results of Chinese players in the last three seasons have been much worse.
In the past three seasons, two Japanese athletes have exceeded the 13.10 seconds mark, although there is a lot of gap with Liu Xiang's Asian record of 12.88 seconds, but the 13.10 seconds mark is an unattainable height for other famous Chinese players, especially Junsuke Izumitani, born in 2000, has exceeded 13.10 seconds three times in the past two years, becoming the most active Asian athlete. The Japanese athlete's advantage also reflects a certain thickness, and last year's Takayama Junno ran 13.10 seconds, which formed a double insurance with Junsuke Izumitani.
According to the current situation, whether it is Zhu Shenglong after 00 or Xie Wenjun, a veteran 10 years older than him, it is very difficult to achieve the Chinese men's 110-meter hurdles ten consecutive championships at the Hangzhou Asian Games. It should also be noted that in recent years, athletes from Japan, South Korea, India and other countries have posed a great threat to Chinese athletes in men's long jump, men's high jump, men's triple jump and other events, and the status of some traditional dominant events of Chinese athletics at the Hangzhou Asian Games will be severely tested. (Wang Quanli)