Fifteen-year-old Asian record smashed in Beijing

Chinese Taipei’s Ya-Ting Liu broke a 15-year-old Asian record on the second day of the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing, China, on Tuesday (15 April) on a day that saw 54 track and field events and four regional records broken.

The 22-year-old world bronze medallist from last summer threw 35.48m in the second round of the women’s javelin F12 to smash the previous record set by China’s Hongyan Xu in January 1999 and claim victory.

On the track, Jin Zheng (2:22.32), who knocked nearly a minute off the 1,500m T11 Asian record on Monday, collected her second regional record of the Grand Prix, this time in the 800m. The 22-year-old ran 2:22.32 to lower Japan’s Mikiko Masuda’s (2:54.35) previous record set in March 2003 by more than 32 seconds.

Xiahong Wang (1:09.30) also lowered her own 400m T44 Asian record, set almost a year ago at the same meet, by nearly two seconds (1:11.14).

One of the most eagerly anticipated races of the day was the women’s 100m T54 with Paralympic champion and world record holder Wenjun Liu going head-to-head against 2011 world champion and London silver medallist Hongjiao Dong.

Racing into a 1.1m/s head wind, Liu romped to victory in 16.70 seconds, well ahead of Dong (17.49) in second.

In the field, Paralympic champion Liwan Yang threw 7.29m, just 21cm shorter than her London 2012 gold medal winning throw, to win the women’s shot put F54.

Paralympic and world champion Fuliang Liu was also close to his London 2012 best, winning the men’s triple jump F47 in 14.59m, 15cm less than the leap that won him Paralympic gold. On a busy day for the 22-year-old, he won the men’s 100m T47 in the afternoon session with a time of 11.83.

New Zealand’s Holly Robinson (10.84m/914 points), a javelin F46 world silver medallist last year, showed her versatility winning the women’s shot put F42/44/46 with an Oceanic record, beating London 2012 F44 shot put silver medallist Juan Yao (11.73m/858 points) in the process.

The men’s javelin F12 also underlined that Chinese Taipei’s Chih Chung Chiang is back to his world beating best. The 34-year-old won Paralympic gold in 2000 and 2004 but did not medal at a major event again until winning last year’s world title. In throwing 58.30m he beat London 2012 champion Pengkai Zhu (54.57m) by nearly four metres.

The IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing, which features over 170 athletes will close on Wednesday (16 April).