JAKARTA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Wei Yongli, China's No. 1 female sprinter, is still unbeatable and confident for future, despite missing golds in 100m and 200m races at the Jakarta Asian Games.
Women's 200m final on Wednesday is replay of the 100m version earlier as the first three finishers were all the same -- Nigeria-born Bahraini Edidiong Odiong won gold at 22.96s, Indian Dutee Chand settled for silver with a time of 23.20s and Chinese Wei Yongli took bronze at 23.27.
The nation's hope for gold weighs heavily on Wei's mind. The 27-year-old was catapulted into collective consciousness after winning two golds in women's 100m and 4x100m relay, and then a silver from 200m at 2014 Incheon Asiad.
"I know that expectations have been heightened after my comeback golds in Incheon four years ago. There will be extra pressure and you cannot avoid it," said Wei.
Wei is not satisfied with her performances in Jakarta. "It's bellow my expectation, but acceptable," she said.
"It's my sixth race at this Games tonight and I was sort of running out of 'battery' after the 200m semifinals last night," she told Xinhua after the 200m final.
Despite the losses at individual events, Wei is very confident with the coming women's 4x100 relay competitions, in which China is the defending champion.
"We have a great team with good cooperation for years. So, we are 100 percent confident to defend the honor here," she said.
Born to a farmer's family in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Wei ran a lot from an early age.
"I was running around in the mountains, helping my family with the cattle, so I had relatively strong legs. Other children did not like to play games with me because I was running too fast," Wei recalled.
Wei began athletics training in 2006 when she was 15, and later was recruited into the Chinese national team in 2010.
"I have great models to follow in our team, first our star hurdler Liu Xiang," she said.
Liu won the first gold in a men's track and field event for China in men's 110m hurdles at the 2004 Olympic Games, but retired in 2015.
"He gave our younger generation a belief that our Asians are able to win in the races dominated by foreign runners before," she said. "I kept telling myself, 'believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve the results you want'."
Another icon for Wei is Su Bingtian, the famous Chinese sprinter who was crowned in the men's 100m final at Jakarta.
"We have been training together over the past several years and I have learned a lot from him and he helped me a lot as well. But in the end, it's me myself to absorb the suggestions and make them real in races," she said,
"I'm much more mature now technically and mentally, but I focused on 100m race last year and I improved. I will make a thorough training plan after the Games to consolidate the improvement and lay a good foundation for Tokyo Games," she added.
