The 2024 Yangtze River Delta International Track and Field Diamond Championships will kick off on April 27 at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium. A few days ago, the organizing committee of the event announced the list of 19 "Chinese Legion", including Tokyo Olympic champions Gong Lijiao and Liu Shiying, Eugene World Championships champions Wang Jiannan and Feng Bin, "the first person in the 100 meters after 00" Chen Guanfeng, Wu Yanni who brushed her personal best four times in a month, Xiong Shiqi, the gold medalist of the Hangzhou Asian Games, and Lu Huihui, the Asian record holder of the women's javelin, etc., newcomers and veterans gathered, and they will compete with the world's top masters in 13 competitions, showing "Chinese power" and impacting the Paris Olympics.
Throwing: A strong duel, with Olympic champions leading the defense of China's honor
Women's throwing has always been a highlight of Chinese athletics. In this year's diamond competition, the "Chinese Army" will send six women masters to compete for the championship of shot put, javelin and discus.
Gong Lijiao, who has won three Olympic and World Championship gold medals, and Song Jiayuan, a teenager from Shanghai, both appeared in the women's shot put. In the decade from 2010 to 2019, the women's shot put event made seven appearances in Shanghai, with Gong Lijiao attending and winning the championship four times, while setting and holding the 20.23m record. Today, the 35-year-old is still in excellent form, breaking the 20m mark five times in the past three years and setting a new personal best at the Tokyo Olympics with a 20.58m title. In this year's Yangtze River Delta International Track and Field Diamond Championships, Gong Lijiao will compete for the eighth time, and will face the current world No. 1 Chase Jackson and No. 2 Sarah Milton in Suzhou with teammate Song Jiayuan.
The women's javelin will also feature two Chinese athletes, Tokyo Olympic champion Liu Shiying and Asian record holder Lu Huihui, who will join forces to challenge for the top podium at home stadium. As in the women's shot put, the Chinese will face the same 2023 World Championships in Budapest, with Hazel Kitaguchi from Japan and Flor Danes Ruiz-Hurtado from Colombia.
Asian record holder in the women's javelin, Lu Huihui. Photo courtesy of the organizer
In the women's discus throw, China fielded Eugene world champions Feng Bin and Jiang Zhichao, and their main opponents were the American duo Rauga Tausaga and Valalie Allman, and the Netherlands' Van Klinken was also a good player. At last year's World Championships in Budapest, the trio battled Feng Bin for the title, with Tausaga winning the title and Allman silver. In this encounter in Suzhou, it is worth looking forward to whether Feng Bin, who has a favorable location and people, can succeed in "revenge".
Jumping: Veteran + new star, women's long jump ushered in the "Intercontinental First Sister" battle
In the past many editions of the Diamond League in Shanghai, there has never been a shortage of Chinese players in the men's long jump. From 2010 to 2019, the Chinese team won 2 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in this event. Eugene world champion Wang Jiannan will participate in this tournament for the fourth time this year, aiming to win the championship. In the past two years, Wang Jianan's season best times have reached 8.36m and 8.34m respectively, ranking among the best in the world and has the strength to win the championship.
Suzhou local player Shi Yuhao will also make a comeback in front of his hometown parents. In the 2018 Diamond League in Shanghai, 18-year-old Shi Yuhao won the runner-up, but he was accidentally injured in the last jump, resulting in multiple metatarsal misalignment. It means a lot to him to be back in the Diamond League.
In the women's long jump, 8 of the top 10 players in the world will be in the competition. In particular, Xiong Shiqi, the "rising star" who won the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, will challenge Shpanovich, Davis Woodhall, Brummore and Buschcur, who have created the world's best results in the past four years, setting off an intercontinental war of Asia, Africa, Europe, the United States and Oceania.
Chinese men's long jump star Wang Jianan. Photo courtesy of the organizer
In addition, China's Wang Zhen will compete in the men's high jump event to face Balshim, a double Olympic and World Championship champion. Huang Bokai and Yao Jie will compete in the men's pole vault event and compete with world record holder Duplantis.
Running across: sprinting to Paris, the "post-00s" want to blow a 100-meter Chinese whirlwind
Of course, as the most eye-catching part of the Diamond League, the men's 100-meter battle has always attracted attention inside and outside the field with its electric speed competition. This year's event in Suzhou, three world champions, John Blake, Christian Coleman and Fred Kerry, will compete in a triwizard showdown. The Chinese team sent Chen Guanfeng, a member of the men's 4x100m champion of the Hangzhou Asian Games, to face him. Whether this post-00 Guangdong player can take over the baton of Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye and blow a Chinese whirlwind on the stage of the Diamond League is also one of the highlights of this game.
Wu Yanni, who has just broken her personal best in the indoor 60m hurdles four times in a month, will also return to compete here after a nine-year absence from Suzhou, competing with four "world No. 1" athletes.
In addition, in other sprint, middle-distance and sprint events, China's Liu Dezhu, Xu Zhuoyi, Zhang Deshun and Xu Shuangshuang will compete in the men's 800m, men's 110m hurdles, women's 5000m and women's 3000m steeplechase respectively.
The head picture shows Wu Yanni, who has brushed her personal best in the indoor 60-meter hurdles four times in a month. Photo courtesy of the organizer