Asiad champion Xue runs into Olympic time
Updated: 2007-11-01 10:47
WUHAN - World junior champion and Asian Games gold medalist Xue Fei blew away the boring air over the track and field of the 6th Chinese City Games after running into 15 minutes and nine seconds, the Olympic qualifying A standard, for the women's 5000 meters title here on Wednesday.
 Asian Champion Xue Fei competes in the women's 5,000 meters at the Chinese City Games in Wuhan of Central China October 31, 2007. Xue finished first into 15 minutes and nine seconds, the Olympic qualifying A standard. [Xinhua] |
The 19-year-old narrowly edged some underdogs to win the championship with a time of 15:02.73, beating Xie Fang of Datong, Shanxi province on a deficit of 1.22 seconds. Zhang Yingying of southern Haikou was the third in 15:06.08.
"This is my personal best and the result is under the Olympic qualifying A standard, " said Xue with no gratification on her face.
"I just performed normally," added the Nanjing racer, the only Chinese in last August's world championships who ran into the Olympic qualifying B standard of 15:24:00. "I'm still recovering from a shin injury."
For the long-distance event formerly dominated by Chinese runners like Olympic champions Wang Junxia and Xing Huina, Xue was the biggest hope of China to make next year's Olympic Games on home soil.
In Wednesday's previous finals, world junior championships finalist Yu Zipei flied high in the men's 400 meters hurdles, scooping the gold for Guangzhou.
Yu, who rushed to a seventh finish at the world junior athletics championships last year in Beijing, beat top qualifier Zhang Chong in 50.80 seconds. Chen Dayu from Shenzhen, 19, finished third in 51.73 seconds.
In the men's 5000 meters final in the morning, national ace Lin Xiangqian made an impelling race, edging marathon national record holder Ren Longyun for the title in 2.26 seconds. The bronze medal went to Gao Laiyuan of eastern Jinan in 13:56.58.
Qingdao's Xinjia took the men's discus throw gold medal with a throw of 55.39m in the fourth round, while Shanghai Pudong's Huang Dongwei, 18, earned the silver on 53. 49m and Yantai's Huang Wei was the third with a further deficit of 0.26m.
Doha Asian Games' bronze medalist Yang Yansheng finished on top podium of the men's pole vault after conquering a pediatric height of 5.25 meters, beating his province team mate Li Kang, representing Jinan here in the under-20 tournament, to the second place after clearing the height of 5.15m.
Zhou Bo of northern Shenyang was also stopped by the height of 5.20m but he only made the 5.15m mark on the third attempt.
On the women's part, Guangzhou's Li Yanmei, 17, claimed a second gold medal to her harvest, jumping for 13.93 meters to beat Liu Yanan of Baoding on 13.80m and Hu Qian of Xiamen on 13.62, adding to her previous victory in women's long jump on Tuesday.
Asian championships silver medalist Sha Li only finished fourth in the triple jump event, getting her best result of all her attempts on the night for 13.61m.
World junior championships finalist Song Lijuan clinched the title of heptathlon with 5249 points, while Wei Xiaobin of Xiamen grabbed the silver with a total score of 4987 and Su Lulu from Qinhuangdao was the third with 4938.
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