China makes breakthrough to qualify for Olympic women's 800m finals

TOKYO, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China made a breakthrough at Tokyo 2020 on Saturday when Wang Chunyu became the first Chinese to qualify for the Olympic women's 800m finals.

Wang completed the semifinals with a personal best of 1:59.14, ranking second in her semifinal group to secure a place in the final.

"I am really excited. Making it to the final was my goal, but it was a bit challenging, so I did feel some pressure before the semifinals. I want to try for an even better ranking in the final," said Wang. "I have proved that Asians and Chinese can make it to the final (of women's 800m)."

Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian came second with 10.05 seconds in his heat to qualify for the men's 100m semifinals scheduled on Sunday.

It is the third Olympic appearance for the Asian record holder. He was the only one out of the three Chinese sprinters that make it to the semifinals.

"Being top three in the heat is good enough to make it to the next round," said Su, adding that he would go all out at the semifinals tomorrow, taking the race as the final.

"Because based on what I have now, I'm not good enough to make it into the final for sure. I can only try my best," he added.

In the men's long jump qualification, China's Huang Changzhou made it to the next round with 7.96 meters.