The 2023 track and field season is coming to an end, the domestic track races have long ended, the road running marathon event, there are still a few larger races left in December, and the others have basically come to an end, key competitions at all levels at home and abroad, including the World Championships, Asian Games, World Universiade, domestic youth games, etc.
The focus of China's track and field competitions is to focus on domestic competitions this year, and the overall performance of the World Championships is also expected, and the overall performance of the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Chengdu World Universiade is relatively satisfactory.
Among the many track and field events, if you want to say which Chinese track and field event has the most outstanding overall performance in the 2023 season, it is the men's marathon.
The progress of the men's marathon this season can be described as coming by leaps and bounds, which is also in line with the trend of the world's rapid growth. The progress of Chinese male players is not a few or two people, but a whole, and a group of people are making great strides this year, covering several age groups from the post-85s to the post-00s.
Up to now, the top 10 best results in China this year have all entered the 2:10 mark, which is unique in the history of Chinese marathons.
The average result of the top 10 best results has reached an astonishing 2:08:42, which can already be ranked in the top few in the world of the year, and the current average score of the top 10 in Japan is 2:06:50, and the overall gap still exists, but judging from the performance of several times in the same competition, the gap has tended to narrow, and more than once defeated Japanese high-level players.
To make a casual comparison, it is easy to understand that in the 2019 season before the epidemic, the average time in the top 10 in Japan was 2:09:12, and the overall performance of the Chinese men's marathon this year is about the same level as Japan in several years, and the best time in Japan that year was 2:07:50 in Yuta Shiraku.
Of course, there is still a gap in terms of overall talent depth and top athletes, and China does not yet have a player of the level of Kengo Suzuki.
In addition to Japan, the United States, a marathon country, has an average score of 2:09:05 in the top 10 this year, and the best time is 2:07:47, with a total of 7 people breaking 2:10, and the number of people breaking 2:10 and the best result of the year are behind China, which may also be the first time in history.
Chinese track and field has broken more than one national record this year, and the more significant one is that the famous Xie Zhiyu broke the men's 400m hurdles record that has been in the dust for more than 10 years, but the influence is not as good as He Jie and Yang Shaohui's two marathon records.
In the first half of the Wuxi trials, He Jie and Yang Shaohui showed great courage that was rare for domestic athletes in the past, and finally the two of them broke the men's marathon national record of 2:08:15 held by Qinghai star Ren Longyun for more than 10 years with 2:07:30 and 2:07:49 respectively. He also reached the World Championships in Budapest and the Olympic Games in Paris.
In the second half of the Beijing Marathon, Chen Tianyu, a famous player from Yunnan who had previously trained with the national team, ran a good result of 2:08:11 for the first time in serious preparation for the marathon, surpassing the 2:08:15 of the original North Malaysia China's best result is also the original national record, only one second away from the Paris Olympics. His teammate Gao Peng also ran an excellent time of 2:09:34 and successfully broke the 2:10 mark.
At the Fukuoka International Marathon in Japan at the end of the year, Yang Shaohui participated as the first specially invited runner from China. He came up with the idea of participating in the competition after the Asian Games, "I mainly want to break through myself, and I have not been preparing for the competition for a long time, about fifteen or sixteen days."
With a strong desire to win and years of experience, the 31-year-old Yang Shaohui made history again, improving He Jie's record of less than a year by 21 seconds with an astonishing time of 2:07:09. Yang Shaohui broke the national record twice a year, ran 2:08 twice, and became the first in Chinese history.
The 22-year-old Guizhou teenager Feng Peiyou, with the 2:09:21 run in the Wuxi selection tournament this year, was selected into the World Championships lineup, this time in Fukuoka he ran a good score of 2:08:07, ranked sixth, and improved the PB again, and also surpassed the previous 2:08:15 original national record, becoming the representative of the outstanding players after zero zero in China.
There are four athletes this year, and a total of five times have exceeded the national record before this year, which is rare in Chinese track and field in recent years.
With the results and rankings of the two gold label events in Wuxi and Fukuoka International, Yang Shaohui ranked 69th in the world in the latest World Athletics Federation points ranking on December 5, ranking third in Asia behind Japan's Kenya Keita and Bahrain's naturalized athletes.
According to the 2024 Gold Label Athlete Classification Criteria, Yang Shaohui has a good chance of becoming a World Athletics Federation Marathon Gold Label athlete in the list to be announced after February next year.
Although there are not many local athletes in Japan after MGC, and the influence and level of this old men's elite event have declined in recent years, it is still one of the top three important races in Japan.
There is no doubt that Yang Shaohui's gold content of the runner-up is also the best ranking of Chinese male players in foreign gold standard events.
As mentioned earlier, the most important task of this year's competition is the Asian Games and the World Universiade, especially the local Hangzhou Asian Games, which has attracted the highest attention from the Chinese people.
He Jie and Yang Shaohui continued the good form when the trials broke the record, especially He Jie, who performed perfectly this year, winning the championship in this much-anticipated competition, winning the championship in 2:13:02, which is also the first time that the Chinese people won the gold medal in the men's marathon Asian Games, creating history and being in the limelight for a while. He is also undefeated in this year's domestic marathon against domestic opponents.
In addition to the above athletes in the system, the players outside the system who are now active in the field are also a powerful force, although the absolute strength cannot be compared with the high level in the system, but the degree of popularity is not bad at all. Among them, the Tibetan runner Jia Oringa from Qinghai is a representative figure, and he has also written and reported many times before the 98 run.
This year's highlight was a 2:09:54 PB at the Berlin Marathon, the first time an outside marathon runner could break the 2:10 mark.
After several years of exploration and practice, Jia Orirenga and his team have once again proved that the environment outside the domestic system can also produce high-level players. They are an absolutely indispensable force for the future of Chinese marathons.
Dong Guojian, a 36-year-old veteran, may have been the most "idle" year in recent years, and the last time there was no major tournament in the whole year may have been the two years of the 2014-15 trough.
At the beginning of the year, he failed to hit the national record in the Seoul Marathon in South Korea, but he also ran a good time of 2:09:29, breaking 2:10 in his career, the most in Chinese history. After the race, I watched on my phone as other younger opponents broke national records and also took away the World Championships and Asian Games.
But he has no regrets, and he will go for higher results whenever he has the chance. In the second half of the Berlin Marathon, Dong Guojian once again attacked the national record.
Under the leadership of such meritorious athletes, it has become a common understanding of athletes to achieve good results, which is one of the internal reasons why so many people can achieve good results now. Veteran Dong Guojian and another meritorious player, Yin Shunjin, have made great contributions.
He Jie broke the national record at 2:07:30, won the Hangzhou Asian Games, and won the same competition in China three times to beat Yang Shaohui;Yang Shaohui 2:07:09 New record holder, Fukuoka International runner-up, Budapest World Championships ranked higher than He Jie, breaking 208 twice.
If you want to select the best male athlete of the year in Chinese track and field, I believe that marathon runners will also be popular candidates, if only one marathon runner is selected, who do you think is the king in your mind?Leave a message stating who you are and why.
This weekend, He Jie and Yang Shaohui, Dong Guojian and Peng Jianhua will all participate in the Xiamen East Half Marathon, and they will continue to attack the national record in the half marathon.