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China Wins Three Golds in Universiade Track and Field
Hosts China reaped three golds and two silvers Tuesday in track and field competitions of the 21 st World University Games.
Liu Xiang, a 18-year-old Chinese student, held off a late charge from Austrian Elmar Lichtenegger to win the men's 110m hurdles gold in 13.33 seconds, only .01 second short of his personal best.
Lichtenegger had to settle for the silver .03 seconds behind and Swede Robert Kronberg took the bronze in 13.48.
"I'm very young now," said the lanky Liu. "I know I still have a long way to go and a lot of hurdles to conquer."
"But I'm confident to run into 13.20 when I reach the peak of my career three or four years later."
Following Liu's victory, Su Yiping added another gold for China as she cruised to an easy win in the women's 100m hurdles.
Su burst out of the blocks first and maintained the lead throughout to clock her personal best of 12.95 seconds. Higa Maurren Maggi of Brazil claimed the silver in 13.13, followed by Australian Jacquie Munro in 13.17.
"I'm so excited to win the gold medal in front of the home crowd." said the 22-year-old Su, who participated in the East Asian Games earlier this year but failed to win a medal.
"I hope to take part in the 2004 Olympics, but my real dream is to show up at the Beijing Olympics in 2008." She added.
Dong Yanmei, a runner of the famous "Ma's Army", overcame tough challenge from a pair of Japanese to claim the women's 10,000- meter title.
Dong, closely followed by Yukiko Akaba of Japan throughout, overtook another Japanese Yoshiko Fujinaga around the last 600 meters to win in 32 minutes 45.14 seconds.
Akaba and Fujinaga captured the silver and bronze in 32:53.55 and 32:57.35 respectively.
"I'm not in form since I came back from the Edmonton World Athletics Championships," said Dong, who was narrowly edged into the fourth place in the women's 5000m at the Championships.
"Yet the Universiade is held in China, I must try my best."
Dong, who bowed to coach Ma Junren after the competition, expressed her sincere thanks to Ma, saying "I'm very grateful to him for his instructions."
Maggi also caught a lot spotlight as she snatched the women's long jump gold after winning a silver in the 100m hurdles.
The 25-year-old Brazilian, who had already secured the gold in her second try of 6.79 meters, jumped 6.82 meters on her fourth attempt, and even increased one more centimeter on the last one.
Chinese Guan Yingnan, who was narrowly knocked out of the last eight in the Edmonton World Athletics Championships, showed good form with a 6.56-meter jump on her first attempt. But She fouled on the following five tries, except the third one at 6.51m.
The bronze medal went to Japanese Kumiko Ikeda who found her form on the last attempt to leap 6.52 meters.
"I like very much long jump, because I have my best result of 7. 26 meters." said Maggi, who also grabbed the gold of women's long jump and the silver of 100m hurdles in the 1999 Pan-American Games.
"In the 100m hurdles, I just had good luck."
Abiodun Oyepitan of Britain triumphed in the women's 100 meters with the fastest time of 11.42 seconds.
China's Zeng Xiujun won the silver in 11.58, with Swiss Mireille Donders third only .01 behind.
In the men's 100 meters final, the United States defended its dominance in the event as Marcus D. Brunson clocked 10.15 seconds to win.
Gennadiy Chernovol of Kazakhstan was second in 10.29 while Christopher Lambert of Britain came in third at 10.38.
Italian Nicola Vizzoni captured the men's hammer throw gold with a longest throw of 78.41 meters. Vladyslav Piskunov of Ukraine took the silver, throwing 77.99 meters, and Hungarian Adrian Annus grabbed the bronze at 77.73.
Tuesday also saw the biggest upset in the track and field competition as Chinese star Lan Lixin and Li Jingnan were knocked out of the women's 1500m final.
Lan, who was caught by the team over the last 250 meters, only finished a distant eighth in 4:19.93 in heat two of the first round.
"I haven't received regular training since I came back from the Edmonton World Athletics Championships." said Lan, who also failed to qualify for the last eight of women's 1500m in Edmonton.
"There are some other factors outside the competition with my failure." the 23-year-old Lan noted.
But Lan was reluctant to release any details.
Her teammate Li, who has a personal best of 4:04.84, led from the start but also fell to late charge by others. She finally placed a disappointing seventh in 4:19.13 in heat three.
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