China's Gong Lijiao celebrates after winning the title of the women's shot put final at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, Oct. 3, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
China's athletics sees a successful year of 2019 with multiple records and better participations.
XIAMEN, China, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese athletics community has witnessed a successful year of 2019 as their athletes renewed world and Asian records and the grassroots road running continued to boost with record participation.
China's Liu Hong celebrates as she crosses the finish line during the Women's 20km Race Walk Final at the 2019 IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 29, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
Olympic and world champion Liu Hong became the first woman ever to break four hours in the 50km race walk, set a world record of 3:59:15 in Huangshan in March. Five Asian records were also renewed by Chinese athletes this year.
Liu then took her third world 20km race walk title in Doha, one of the three gold medals the Chinese team won in the Qatari capital.
CAA vice president Yu Hongchen delivers the annual work report in Xiamen on Dec. 17, 2019. (Xinhua)
"The Chinese team won three gold, three silver and three bronze medals at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, finishing on the fourth position in both the medal table as well as the placing table with a total of 99 points. It was our best performance in the World Championships since the 1993 edition," said Yu Hongchen, vice-president and secretary general of the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA), when delivering the annual work report in Xiamen on Monday.
Lyu Huihui of China competes during the women's javelin throw final during the Women's Javelin Throw final at the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, on Oct. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Lili)
Javelin thrower Lyu Huihui improved her own Asian record three times in the year to 67.98-meter while pole vaulter Li Ling also renewed her continental record to 4.72m in the Shanghai Diamond League in May.
Xie Zhenye of China celebrates after the men's 200m final at Muller Anniversary Games at London Stadium in London, Britain, on July 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Alberto Pezzali)
Xie Zhenye became the first Chinese to dip under the 20-second barrier in 200m sprint as he clocked 19.88s in the Diamond League London meet, knocking 0.09s off the previous Asian record achieved by Qatari Femi Ogunode four years ago.
Chinese men's and women's 4X200m relay team also set area records at the World Athletics Relays in Yokohama, Japan.
Moreover, there have been five Chinese national records and 11 national U20 and youth records that fell in the past twelve months.
About 24,000 participants from all over the world took part in the 2019 Wuhan Marathon in Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province, April 14, 2019. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)
Apart from the breakthroughs in the national-team level, the boom in grassroots road running continued in 2019 as more than 1900 races have been hosted or co-hosted by the CAA in 2019, featuring a total participation of more than eight million.
Of all the races, 24 races managed to earn a World Athletics label road race status in 2019, which is the biggest share for a single country or region on the World Athletics calendar.
Vice President of Chinese Athletic Association Wang Nan speaks during the IAAF Global Running Conference China 2019 in Lanzhou, northwest China's Gansu Province, May 31, 2019. (Xinhua/Fan Peishen)
The Chinese athletics also gained success beyond competition.
Wang Nan, vice president of the CAA, became the first Asian woman to be elected council member of the World Athletics in Doha, while Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian has been appointed to the Athletes Commission of world governing body of the sport.
"The role you have played for so many years in helping us globalize athletics has been absolutely central to the development of our sport," said Sebastian Coe, president of the World Athletics, as his video of greetings were displayed during the two-day meeting.
"Thank you for everything that you have done for so many years. And as president of World Athletics, I look forward to working particularly closely with you for many years to come," he said. ■
