Thoughtfulness | The people who treat Liu Xiang the most as a hero are the Japanese

Through years of imitating Liu Xiang, Japan has become a short-term power second only to the United States and Jamaica. This made the mood of "thinking of Liu Xiang every time" at this year's World Championships in Athletics more enthusiastic. Even many netizens raised the hope that Liu Xiang could serve as the coach of the hurdles group of the track and field team. But is this possible? Especially after we forced Liu Xiang to be frustrated with a harsh public opinion environment...

Written by丨Yang Hua

Editor丨 Feng Xiao

Taking advantage of the popularity of the World Championships in Athletics, the World Athletics Federation announced the top 100 fastest runners in the men's 110m hurdles this year. Surprisingly, Japan has 11 people on the list, making it the third short-span power in the world after the United States (26) and Jamaica (12). In contrast, China has only five athletes shortlisted, and the post-Liu Xiang era can be described as difficult. China's proud technological superiority in hurdles is being stolen and surpassed by Japan, and the Japanese have paid fruit to Liu Xiang's heartfelt respect and thorough research, and how hard we scolded Liu Xiang at the beginning, how painful it is to be crushed by the Japanese team now.

Caption: Japan's Junsuke Izumitani in the men's 110m hurdles is becoming the Asian leader in the event

Speaking of which, the previous Japanese hurdles have been relatively weak, not to mention the Liu Xiang era, before China's 110-meter hurdles was also the complete explosion of Japan, since 1974 held 12 Asian Games, Chinese athletes won the championship in 11 of the competitions, Cui Lin, Wang Xunhua, Yu Zhicheng, Li Tong, Chen Yanhao, Liu Xiang, Xie Wenjun have reached the top, not including Shi Dongpeng, the runner-up of the two Asian Games who unfortunately were in the same era as Liu Xiangsheng... Take out any one, and it is an insurmountable god for Japanese players. In this project, we have a tradition and accumulation, and Liu Xiang was initially inspired by his fellow master brother Chen Yanhao.

Once upon a time, the Asian hegemon of the men's 110m hurdles has always come from China

However, the situation changed when Liu Xiang retired from injury at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was ridiculed by the Chinese as "Liu Run", and Liu Xiang at the 2012 London Olympics was ridiculed as "Liu Jumping" by trolls. The Japan Land Athletic Federation went all out to learn and study Liu Xiang, they believed that the high technical content of hurdles was a breakthrough for the yellow race to defeat blacks in the straight event, Liu Xiang proved this, so all they had to do was cultivate "Japanese Liu Xiang".

Caption: Liu Xiang at the London Olympics

The hurdle project has extremely high technical requirements, not that blacks with good physical fitness will definitely win the championship, the key is the rhythm between the hurdles and the technique of attacking the hurdles, with Liu Xiang Zhuyu in front, the Japanese have less detours in the process of exploration. I have to admire the Japanese people's learning ability and professionalism, and there are reports that they play back Liu Xiang's game videos frame by frame, study relevant papers and statistics, and copy Liu Xiang in the most scientific way. Moreover, hurdles have also become a key support project in Japanese athletics, encouraging young athletes with conditions to change hurdles, and the current Japanese hurdles brother Junsuke Izumitani is from the triple jump.

Liu Xiang's obsession and trust make the Japan Land Athletic Federation firmly believe that the yellow race in the men's 110m hurdles event can use their technical ability to make up for the gap in speed and strength compared to black athletes. Nowadays, those Japanese sprint runners who grew up watching Liu Xiang compete have grown: Junsuke Izumitani is above 10,000 people in the history of the Asian 110m hurdles, and he only needs to look up to Liu Xiang! The third person in Asian history in this event is Takayama Junye, who ran 13.10 seconds last year; The fourth man in Asian history is Daiwang Kanai, who ran 13.16 seconds the year before.

Japan's talent in the short span now far surpasses that of China, with 16 of Asia's top 17 best results this season run by Japanese runners, while China's Zhu Shenglong is in ninth place. Junsuke Izumitani played mediocre at the World Championships in Athletics in Budapest, finishing fifth in 13.19 seconds and failing to finish on the podium, but with his current upward trend, there is a good chance of winning a medal at next year's Olympics and knocking the 13-second mark at the right time.

And if you look at it from the age dimension, Japan short-spans the young generation: Junsuke Izumitani is 23 years old, and the Hangzhou Asian Games is likely to end the Chinese team's dream of winning 10 consecutive championships in this event and smash China's glory of 110 meters hurdles for decades. Mixed race athlete Muratake Rashid is only 21 years old, Universiade champion Toyoda is 20 years old, World Championship semifinalists Yokoji Daya is 22 years old, Aya Koike is 20 years old...

Although China's "short span five tigers" Zhu Shenglong, Xu Zhuoyi, Liu Junqian, Qin Weibo, Ning Xiaohan are also very young, but they are always pressed by the Japanese side, the most important thing is that with the 33-year-old veteran Xie Wenjun knee injury difficult to return to the peak, Chinese athletes have actually been difficult to reach the final in the Olympic or World Championships. At the recent World Championships in Budapest, only Zhu Shenglong of the Chinese team reached the standard and was eliminated in the first shot, while the Japanese team entered the World Championships with three people, all of them reached the semifinals, and Junsuke Izumitani was shortlisted for the final to create Japanese short cross history.

Caption: Zhu Shenglong is the only Chinese athlete who has reached the men's 110m hurdles target at this World Championships

Chinese track and field fans have "thought of Liu Xiang every time they compete" over the years, initiating feelings and laments such as "missing Liu Xiang", "the Chinese people owe Liu Xiang an apology", and "the next Liu Xiang may have to wait 100 years". But in fact, many of them called Liu Xiang a liar at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics. Only now I remember that Liu Xiang is worthy of respect and praise, but it is too late, Japan, which respects Liu Xiang more, is enjoying the "Liu Xiang dividend", and it is difficult to constantly give birth to heroes in the soil of not cherishing heroes, not to mention the next Liu Xiang, that is, the next Shi Dongpeng Xie Wenjun, which has not yet been found.

Some netizens pointed out that Liu Xiang is now the deputy secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Shanghai Sports Bureau, which is an idle position, usually publicize and promote athletics, attend some activities and hold some meetings, it is said that he does not sit much at work, and often travels abroad with his wife Wu Sha. Everyone hopes that Liu Xiang will not continue to enjoy a comfortable life, and hope that he can stand up as the coach of the hurdles group of the Chinese athletics team, assist and eventually replace the 68-year-old mentor Sun Haiping, and cultivate talents for China's short span.

But have you ever thought that after experiencing the storm of public opinion that was too harsh on Liu Xiang, would he really endure the humiliation and burden as the hurdle coach of the Chinese track and field team? If Liu Xiang leads Chinese disciples to defeat the Japanese Legion in international competitions, will they be subjected to a new round of online violence? Will someone shout "Liu Xiang off class"? Based on past experience, this scenario is likely to happen. So it's better to respect the choice of Xiangfei, he has been retired for almost 10 years and has not asked about any specific affairs of hurdles, which is not for nothing.

What's even sadder is that Wu Yanni, the "hurdle goddess" who is now popular in the circle, is experiencing the misunderstanding and slander that Liu Xiang has experienced before. Of course, in terms of performance, Wu Yanni and Liu Xiang cannot be compared, but Wu Yanni is a top athlete in Asia after all, after all, it has set off a hurdle fever. For such a confident, cool, and personality athlete, we ridiculed her in every way, criticizing her for being too high-profile, accusing her of having tattoos, and even "cutting her eyelids is not as real as Xia Sining" has become a reason for shelling.

Let me ask you, in such a bad public opinion environment, how can China's former advantageous project hurdles successfully complete the inheritance of the torch?