Liwan Yang breaks shot put world record in Beijing
Four world records have now been broken and one equalled in two days of action at the fifth IPC Athletics Grand Prix of the year. 23 Apr 2016There was a new world record for reigning Paralympic and world champion Liwan Yang on Saturday (23 April), the second day of competition at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Beijing, China.
The 38-year-old made clear her intentions for the 2016 para-athletics season with a second round throw of 7.90m in the women’s shot put F34/54, adding an impressive seven centimetres on to the previous F54 world record mark set by Russia’s world silver medallist Maria Bogacheva back in 2014.
Yang’s effort meant she finished runner-up in Beijing behind F34 thrower Lijuan Zou (8.45m) as a number of China’s other track and field stars also shone in the field.
World bronze medallist Guoshan Wu (14.21m) won the men’s shot put F57 and Paralympic silver medallist Jun Wang (12.53m) won the women’s F35/36, while there was double victory for multiple world and Paralympic champion Na Mi who won the shot put F37 in the morning with a best of 12.84m before returning in the afternoon with a winning throw of 34.05m in the discus F37.
Paralympic and world shot put champion Dong Xia also made it two out of two, winning the men’s shot put F37/38 with 15.13m and the discus F12/37 with 51.14m.
Not to be outdone, Syria’s Abdulsalam Alaa also topped the podium twice, starting with shot put F53 victory in the morning (6.78m) before winning the javelin F53/54 in the afternoon session with a throw of 16.94m.
In other shot put results there were wins for world bronze medallist Cuiqing Li (14.48m) in the men’s F35/36 and Hongxia Tang (12.01m) in the women’s F11, while Qatar’s Mohammed Al Abd (11.47m) won the men’s F11/12/20, Mongolia’s Sambuudanzan Ganzorig (8.94m) won the men’s F55/56, and Vietnam’s Thi Hai Nguyen (7.83) won the women’s F57. There was double success for Uzbekistan as Safiya Burkhanova (13.25m) won the women’s F12 and Nozimakhon Kayumova (12.36) won the women’s F13.
The 100m sprints took place on the track, as world silver medallist Huzhao Li (15.36) got the better of Yufei Zhao and Shiran Yu to win the 100m T53 before going on to take the tape in the men’s 800m T53 in 1:41.93 later in the day.
There was double victory for Qatar’s Mohammed Al Kubaisi too, winning the 100m T34 in the morning (17.27) before going on to dominate the field in the 800m T34 (2:11.85)
Only 0.01 seconds separated first and second in the women’s 100m T11 – but it was Juntingxian Jia who reached the line first in 12.50, as reigning world champion Cuiqing Liu took second in 12.51.
World ranked number two Daqing Zhu (12.44) led the way in the women’s 100m T12, clocking 12.44.
The women’s 100m T52/53 went to form as China’s Paralympic and world champion Lisha Huang (16.47) took first place ahead of her teammate Hongzhuan Zhou (16.99) to go top of the world rankings, and there was no big surprise either as Paralympic champion Junfei Chen (T38) won the women’s T35/38 in 13.19 and world champion Jianwen Hu (11.10) won the men’s 100m T38, just 0.02 seconds shy of the Asian record he clocked to win world gold last year.
China’s Bo Liu (14.52) won the men’s 100m T54 while there was a win for Korea in the T51/52 race courtesy of Jongdae Jeong (18.92).
The host nation continued to dominate the rest of the 100m races as di Dongdong (11.51) led the way in the men’s 100m T11, Qichao Sun (11.47) won the men’s T12, Wei Liu (11.04) won the men’s T13, Xinhan Fu (12.84) finished first in the men’s T35, Yiting Shi (14.53) won the women’s T36, Xiaoyan Wen (13.79) won the women’s T37, Hao Wang (11.14) won the men’s T42/46, Haican He (11.42) took the men’s T47 and T54 racer Ting Zhang (16.69) came first in the women’s T34/54.
Reigning world champion Mohamad Puzi (12.39) had to settle for second place behind Yifei Yang in the men’s 100m T36.
In the middle distance races multiple world medallist Hongzhuan Zhou (1:55.41) lay down her marker ahead of Rio 2016 with victory in the women’s 800m T53 - there were further Chinese victories as Yanfeng Cui (1:41.82) won the men’s 800m T54 and T54 racer Yingjie Li (1:56.25) won the women’s 800m T34/54.
Malaysia’s Muhd Nurdin Ibrahim (T20) took the tape in the men’s 800m T20/36/46/47, stopping the clock at 2:08.35.
Russia’s T53 racer Vitalii Gritsenko won the men’s 5,000m T53/54 more than two seconds clear of Germany’s Alhassane Balde (11:53.51) in second place.
In the day’s discus competitions China’s world champion Juan Yao (43.08m) came top in the women’s F42/44, 31cm shy of the world record she set to take global gold in Qatar, and her compatriot Fengju Zhang (19.37m) won the F40/41. Syria’s Sawsak Bassam managed a best of 39.91m in the men’s F42 event.
World champion Liangmin Zhang turned the tables Hongxia Tang in the women’s discus F11 having lost out to her Chinese teammate in the shot put earlier in the day. Zhang’s throw of 37.61m in the opening round was enough to seal the win.
Vietnam’s Ngoc Hung Cao (40.98m) came out on top in the men’s javelin F55/57, Uzbekistan’s Aleksandr Svechnikov (31.47m) in the men’s T11/13, China’s Yanzhang Wang (33.30m) won the men’s F34 and Chinese Tapei’s Ya Ting Liu (28.24m) won the women’s F12.
In the day’s long jump competitions Paralympic and world champion Fuliang Liu added to his triple jump win success on day one with a winning leap of 6.85m in the men’s T47 event to go top of the world rankings.
The men’s long jump T46 was a closer contest as Hongjie Chen finished (6.96m) just three centimetres clear of his rival Hao Wang.
Islam Salimov of Kazakhstan leapt 6.75m to win the men’s long jump T13/20 and the women’s T20/47 event was won by Malaysia’s Radiah Ismail (5.01m).
More than 200 athletes from 21 countries are in Beijing for the IPC Athletics Grand Prix which runs through to Sunday (24 April).