On September 22, in the final of the men's 110m hurdles in athletics at the 14th National Games, Shanghai's Xie Wenjun played well, running the best time of the season in 13.37 seconds, equaling the record of his brother Liu Xiang's three consecutive National Games championships, helping Shanghai achieve the eight consecutive championships of the National Games. Ning Xiaohan, a post-00s player from Beijing, finished second in 13.45 seconds, which was also the first time Ning Xiaohan ran to the 13.50 seconds mark.
Because Liu Xiang won the gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the men's 110-meter hurdles event has always been a concern for Chinese track and field fans. After Liu Xiang retired, his brother-in-law, Shanghai's Xie Wenjun, still dominated the domestic arena. In the men's 110m hurdles event, Liu Xiang's coach Sun Haiping has always made Shanghai hurdles ahead of the whole country. Starting with the 1993 Seventh Games, Shanghai athletes monopolized the men's hurdles championship at the National Games for 28 years.
This National Games is also Xie Wenjun's journey to defend his title. In recent years, Xie Wenjun has been in good shape, since he ran a personal best of 13.17 seconds in the 2019 Diamond League Shanghai, Xie Wenjun is still trying his best to impact his personal best despite his age. Xie Wenjun finished fifth at the 2019 World Championships in Doha with a time of 13.29 seconds. Despite injuries in outdoor competitions this year and being forced to change his technique back to the eight-step hurdles, Xie Wenjun maintained his personal best of the season at 13.43 seconds before the Tokyo Olympics. At the Tokyo Olympics, Xie Wenjun ran 13.58 seconds in the preliminary round and ranked 5th in the group without qualifying for the final.
Coming to the National Games, Xie Wenjun is still invincible. In the men's 110m hurdles preliminaries, Xie Wenjun ran 13.58 seconds to finish first in the group and advance to the final. In the final, Xie Wenjun was arranged to start in the fourth lane. In addition to Xie Wenjun, Shanghai's Qin Weibo and Guo Zhongjie also entered the final, showing the comprehensive strength of the Shanghai hurdles team. In the final, Xie Wenjun's starting reaction was good, although the first half did not have an advantage, but Xie Wenjun used his advantage of running on the way to achieve overtaking, and finally created Xie Wenjun's best time of the season with 13.37 seconds to win the championship, achieving the three consecutive championships of the national transport. After the game, Xie Wenjun said that although the foot injury still had some impact on his play, there were still some small problems in the performance of the back trip, but the overall performance was not bad. "I continue Shanghai's tradition of winning the 8th consecutive national games in this project, and I am very proud of the inheritance of my predecessors, and I have taken over." Xie Wenjun said after the game. Behind Xie Wenjun, Ning Xiaohan, a post-00 Beijing runner-up, finished second in 13.45 seconds, which was also ning Xiaohan's first personal run to the 13.50 second mark. In the women's 100m hurdles of the National Games, Fujian's Lin Yuwei ran 12.88 seconds to win the championship, Sichuan's Wu Yanni ran 12.91 seconds to finish second, and Jiangsu's Wang Tu ran 13.00 seconds to rank third.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Chu Peng
Editor/Yingchuan Zhang