Five Asian records broken at Beijing Grand Prix

Five Asian records were smashed by Chinese athletes on the first day of the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing, China, on Monday (14 April) as a number of Paralympic and world medallists were in action.

In total there were 54 track and field events on Monday with the majority of athletes using the event as a starting point for their season which will climax with October’s Asian Para-Games in Incheon, South Korea.

The star of the show was Lin Zhu who broke two regional records, first in the morning session in the women’s 100m T13 and then then the afternoon session in the 400m T13.

In recording 12.25 seconds for the 100m, Zhu lowered the previous best set by Japan’s Uran Sawada (13.28) at the 2010 Asian Para-Games by over a second. Her 400m time of 1:01.00 was also more than three seconds faster than the Daqing Zhu’s (1:04.34) 2010 record.

During the morning session, 2011 world silver medallist Jin Zheng (4:55.74) took nearly a minute off the 11-year-old 1,500m T11 regional record, shortly before teammate Junfei Chen (1:08.11), the 200m T38 Paralympic champion, smashed the 400m T38 Asian record by 26 seconds.

In the afternoon session, in addition to Zhu’s 400m record, Jun Wang threw 22.62m to set a new javelin F35 Asian record.

Although most events went to form, there was a small shock in the women’s 200m T53 when Hongzhuan Zhou (29.75) defeated Lisha Huang (29.83), the Paralympic and world champion over the distance. Zhou (29.75), the current 400m and 800m world champion had too much for her teammate over the shorter distance and inflicted a rare defeat on Huang in a thrilling finish.

Other London 2012 champions did favour better on Monday with wins for Lei Xue (11.58) in the men’s 100m T11, Huzhao Li (28.11) in the men’s 200m T53, Wenjun Liu (29.50) in the women’s 200m T54 and Junfei Chen (1:08.11) in the women’s 400m T38.

In the field there were 13 different events, highlighted by Italian world champion Martina Caironi’s victory in the T42/44/47 long jump. The 24-year-old jumped 3.78m, but never threated Kelly Cartwright of Australia’s world record which stands at 4.38m set at London 2012.

Elsewhere in the women’s field events, London 2012 champion Liwan Yang (15.86m) won the javelin F53/54 and fellow London gold medallist Liangmin Zhang (35.96m) the discus F11.

In the men’s field events there were victories for Syria’s Mohamed Mohamed (12.50m) in the shot put F57, world and Paralympic champion Fuliang Liu (7.11m) in the long jump T46/47, 2011 javelin F46 world gold medallist Chuniland Guo (49.48m), world record holder in the javelin F37 Chunliang Guo (49.48m) and London 2012 gold medallist Yanzhang Wang (32.69m).

Competition will continue at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing until Wednesday (16 April).