The Paper reporter Ma Zuoyu came from Hangzhou
For Chinese athletics, the 110m hurdles once symbolized glory and splendor – from Cui Lin to Wang Xunhua to the nine consecutive titles created by Yu Zhicheng, Li Tong, Chen Yanhao, Liu Xiang and Xie Wenjun, China's 110m hurdles has always dominated Asia.
However, in the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium, this glorious record did not extend to ten consecutive championships.
Xu Zhuoyi ran 13.50 seconds to win the bronze medal.
On the evening of October 2, Japan's Toshino Takayama and Kuwait's Jacob Juha stood on the championship podium together with a time of 13.41 seconds. 20-year-old Chinese teenager Xu Zhuoyi won bronze in 13.50 seconds, and Zhu Shenglong ran 13.73 seconds to finish sixth.
When the 33-year-old Xie Wenjun gradually faded out of the domestic competition stage due to injury, China's 110-meter hurdles did not have a leader for the first time in the "post-Liu Xiang era", although a group of young players including Zhu Shenglong, Ning Xiaohan and Xu Zhuoyi were desperately trying to catch up, but due to lack of competition experience and mental and technical immaturity, they still had difficulty carrying the banner for China's 110-meter hurdles on the world stage.
As a traditional advantage of Chinese athletics, why did the 110-meter hurdles suddenly have a talent gap? Is this how China's "era of Asian hegemony" in this project is over?
Xu Zhuoyi in the game.
Stress and tears
When Xu Zhuoyi, wearing the national flag, walked into the mixed interview area after the competition, his first words were "sorry": "I feel sorry for my master and seniors for not being able to keep China's tenth gold medal (in a row)." ”
The 20-year-old Xu Zhuoyi's voice trembled a little when he spoke, "My pressure before the game is indeed very great, because I know that I am bearing the efforts of my predecessors, I am still very nervous, and I run tight during the game, and the future is not particularly good..."
Just a few minutes before Xu Zhuoyi's interview, Zhu Shenglong, who passed through the mixed interview area, had already cried red eyes, and when he replayed this final with the surging news reporter, the young man who originally had a big grin said the same "sorry" the most.
"I didn't win ten consecutive championships for the Chinese team, and I feel sorry for everyone, sorry for everyone who followed the hurdles. There is no excuse for failure, that is, their own technical stability is too poor. ”
Zhu Shenglong's eyes were full of loneliness.
A glorious past
In fact, for the two young people who reached the final of the Asian Games for the first time, their performance is within the acceptable range, but the reason why they are under such great pressure is also because China's 110m hurdles performance in Asia has been too brilliant in the past nearly 40 years.
According to public data, the Asian Games have been held for a total of 18 times, and in the men's 110m hurdles event, China has won 11 gold medals so far. At the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran, the Chinese delegation participating in the Asian Games for the first time won the first gold medal in the event with Cui Lin's 14.26 seconds. Four years later, at the Asian Games in Bangkok, Wang Xunhua beat Japan's Fujimori Ryohisa in 14.28 seconds to win the event again.
Since then, Chinese athletics has opened the "Asian hegemonic era" of dominating the 110-meter hurdles for nine consecutive times - coach Sun Haiping, as the godfather of China's hurdles, led Chen Yanhao, Liu Xiang and Xie Wenjun three generations of "hurdle kings" to win six Asian Games gold medals.
Xu Zhuoyi was also a disciple of Sun Haiping.
It is worth mentioning that Xu Zhuoyi, who won the bronze medal for the Chinese team in Hangzhou, is also the apprentice of coach Sun Haiping.
Xu Zhuoyi revealed after the race that coach Sun Haiping knew that he was under a lot of pressure before the race, and made two special phone calls, "He told me not to be too nervous, I just need to be myself, because I am still young, he hopes that I can stand on the podium, and Brother Jun (Xie Wenjun) also asked me not to be stressed before the race." ”
But the pressure was still there – Xu Zhuoyi said, "the tension caused him to start very badly". Zhu Shenglong, on the other hand, was completely disorganized by the opponent next to him in the back sprint, resulting in two hurdles and a significant drop in speed.
"I put too much pressure on myself before the game, I wanted to [win] too much, and the end result was the opposite."
Xu Zhuoyi was unwilling after the game.
From defending gold medals to chasing opponents
In fact, Junye Gao and Jacob Juha, who stood on the championship podium together at the Hangzhou Asian Games, did not win the final with a time of 13.41 seconds.
This is another important reason why Zhu Shenglong and Xu Zhuoyi feel disappointed and annoyed - as Xu Zhuoyi said in an interview after the game, "I feel even more sorry to see that the championship result is not impossible for me to achieve." ”
This season, Xu Zhuoyi set a personal best of 13.39 seconds. Zhu Shenglong, who is three years older than him, has been eye-catching this season, first running a personal best of 13.25 seconds at the 2023 National Athletics Championships in Shenyang, and reaching the Budapest World Championships. He then ran 13.32 seconds at the 2023 National Athletics Championships in July to win the national championship again.
Zhu Shenglong in the game.
However, whether it is Xu Zhuoyi or Zhu Shenglong, their experience in the World Series or Intercontinental Championships is too little... Netizens also said that seeing the Asian Games champion's 13.41 seconds, think about how shocking Liu Xiang's 12.88 seconds was that year.
Over the past 10 years, when Xie Wenjun took over the banner from Liu Xiang, China's lead in the 110m hurdles in Asia has been shrinking.
At the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, Xie Wenjun's advantage was only 0.07 seconds; at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, this advantage was further reduced to 0.05 seconds.
Xu Zhuoyi said, "In recent years, whether it is the world or Asia, their 110-meter hurdles have risen very fast, so this new generation in China must continue to work hard and catch up with them." ”
Kuwait's Jacob Juha and Japan's Takayama Junno tied for gold.
Japan has taken the lead
Judging from the current situation in the 110-meter hurdles in Asia, this "catch-up" in Xu Zhuoyi's mouth is not easy.
Although Kuwait's Jacob Juha and Japan's Takayama Junye were equally good at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the fact is that the Japanese track and field team did not bring their best 110m hurdlers.
The 23-year-old set a new national record of 13.04 seconds at the Japanese National Athletics Championships in early June, and then ran 13.19 seconds at the World Championships in Budapest, finishing fifth in the final and becoming the first athlete in Japanese athletics history to reach the final of the World Championships.
Judging from the results, Junsuke Izumitani is already the "first brother" in the 110-meter hurdles in Asia.
Behind him, 21-year-old mixed-race Muratake Rashid also ran 13.04 seconds this season and ran 13.20 seconds three times.
In other words, his ability has stabilized at the level of reaching the semi-finals of the World Series or even the final of the World Series.
On the other hand, the Chinese team, except for Zhu Shenglong, who ran once this season in 13.25 seconds, ranked 25th in the world, Xu Zhuoyi's personal best time of 13.39 seconds, and 19-year-old Liu Junqian's 13.40 seconds, basically ranked 50th in the world.
Zhu Shenglong said after the game, "I'm going back to continue training." ”
How to fill the fault?
How to get back to the top of Asia?
"There are still a couple of very strong opponents in Asia who haven't come, and I think we've got a bit of a fault."
In the post-race press conference, when asked by The Paper about the current situation of competition in China's 110m hurdles, Xu Zhuoyi used the word "fault" to describe the current low ebb of the project.
Why is there a fault in the talent pool of the 110m hurdles, which is China's traditional advantage? One of the key words Xu Zhuoyi mentioned was injury.
Xu Zhuoyi was interviewed after the game. Video edited by Xu Chuli
"I'm actually the younger of the new generation, because there are people like Ning Xiaohan, Qin Weibo and Zeng Jianhang in front of me, but they have always been plagued by injuries."
Just before this game, coach Sun Haiping mentioned Zeng Jianhang's injury, "In 2021, when Zeng Jianhang was about to break out, he went wrong, fell and broke his pelvic area (right hip femoral brachial fracture), and did a big operation later... According to common sense, now should be the time for Zeng Jianhang to come to the top. ”
"If there is no injury, at a normal level, he should now have the ability to (run) under 13.20 seconds."
Zeng Jianhang was originally a potential unit in the men's 110m hurdles.
In contrast, Japan's 110m hurdles over the past 10 years has built a fairly healthy talent pipeline.
Toshino Takayama, who won gold for Japan after 41 years, is 29 years old and a veteran of Japan's hurdles, and he is still running hard at the 28-year-old Shuhei Ishikawa by his side; The 27-year-old is holding a level of 13.20 seconds and even hopes to run another major cycle after the Paris Olympics; 23-year-old Junsuke Izumitani is at his peak; The 21-year-old Mura Zhurashid also has room for improvement.
So, can this group of young people in China's 110m hurdles now catch up with the acceleration of their Asian opponents?
At least from the current domestic 110-meter hurdles competition, Chinese athletics needs to create a more fierce competitive environment, more coaches like Sun Haiping with rich experience in short span training, and more mature talent training echelons, in order to help these young people grow up rapidly in the next Asian Games cycle.
Fortunately, they did not lose faith in the future - after Zhu Shenglong cried, he wiped away his tears and said, "I want to go back and continue to practice." ”
Xu Zhuoyi said, "With Zhu Shenglong, Ning Xiaohan and Qin Weibo, a few of us still promote each other, the next Asian Games, should be when I am at my peak, I will definitely take this championship back!" ”
Editor of this issue Zou Shan