In the morning (China time) were held in Huangshan (CHN) the two races of 50km (men and women) as well as the 30km U20.
Intense participation:
- 50km men: 65 athletes at the start
- 50km women: 9 athletes at the start
- 30km U20 men: 39 athletes to the start
The races reserved standigs even at the level of the Province and were therefore drawn up two separate results one of which is for athletes who competed only at the level of Team-Province.
The weather conditions were more or less the same as yesterday: cool temperatures and high humidity day.
Compared to the excellent performance on the 20 km. the 50 km. confirms the difficulty of the Chinese school to find young people with great prospects.
After the period of Si Tiangfeng (Olympic silver in 2012) are not foreseen athletes able to get close to its performance. The only athlete at the time of good international level is Wei Yu (absent today) arrived 7th at Beijing World Championships and 5th in Rio, but still far from regularly fall below the 3h40.
We asked Sandro Damilano of this remarkable difference in performances on the two distances.
"The problem is methodological - he tells us - most of the Chinese coaches fail to understand that is very different the way to prepare for the 50 km. Training program must be differentiated and very different, the training volume must be totally different. Despite every year in two or three conventions, in China, I reiterate these concepts, the are apparently not been able to make myself understood. Confirmation of this is also in the modest results of the Juniors on 30 km."
At the conclusion of this two days we are allowed to submit only two numbers on the overall participation.
At the start in various competitions of Huangshan they were participating 541 athletes representing over 26 autonomous provinces (our Regions).
Three weeks ago in Kobe Championships Japan they were present at the start 311 athletes.
These numbers alone should tell us what is the mass of underlying job and that there is therefore no wonder when they obtain the bombastic results in terms of collective performaces.
50km men
Good race Niu Wenbin (CHN) athlete born in 1991 that last year on this same race on March 6, 2016, had established personal best in 3:48:32 and had arrived 8th.
The athlete of Junnan has quite easily won the title and improved his personal best of 2:20 and finished the race in 3:46.12.
Unfortunately, he isd an athlete that in the international competitions in which he participated was never able to express himselves at good levels.
The fight for second place was fantastic and resolved only in the last 500m of the race.
Wu Qianlong (CHN) (though he never played in big level in international competitions) managed to prevail in 3:48:38 on Bian Tongda (CHN) who arrived after 3" (3:48:41).
Wu Qianlong (1990) which has a PB of 3:47:35 (established on March 21, 2015 in Beijing in the selection for World Championships 2015) had to muster all his experience to get the better of Biang Tongda (1991) which had a much higher personal best (3:59:30, also established in the same race in Beijing).
On Sunday, Niu patiently stayed in the leading group for much of the race. Zhang Lin from the Army team, who finished sixth at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, pulled away to take the sole lead with 12 kilometres to go. But he only managed to maintain his lead for some four kilometres before being passed by the chase pack spearheaded by Niu.
These three athletes were the only ones under 3:50:00, while four others have finished under 4:00:00.
Among them it deserves still report the 6th place of Han Yucheng (CHN) born in 1978 which also this year break the wall of 4:00:00 and that in the course of last season by winning here in Huangshan (3:42:43) had gained the passport to Rome in 2016 (where he had deliberately stopped at 30km) and Rio 2016 (where he had arrived only 47th in 4:32:35).
Of the 65 sttarted athletes, only 30 have completed the race (the difference is that in Europe sometime the athletes at the start did not arrive to 30), 23 DNF and 12 DQ.
Results
| Pos. | Atleta | Risultato |
| | | |
| 1 | Niu Wenbin | 03:46:12 |
| 2 | Wu Qianlong | 03:48:38 |
| 3 | Bian Tongda | 03:48:41 |
| 4 | Luo Dongpo | 03:50:38 |
| 5 | Zhang Lin | 03:52:38 |
| 6 | Meng Zhongkai | 03:54:35 |
| 7 | Han Yucheng | 03:56:23 |
| 8 | Yan Dexiang | 03:58:14 |
| 9 | Liu Jian | 04:00:05 |
| 10 | Cheng Min | 04:00:28 |
| 11 | Luo Yadong | 04:01:00 |
| 12 | Yang Hu | 04:01:04 |
| 13 | Geng Yudong | 04:01:15 |
| 14 | Xie Sichao | 04:01:29 |
| 15 | Liang Yang | 04:01:47 |
| 16 | Fang Hongzhen | 04:03:48 |
| 17 | You Tao | 04:04:29 |
| 18 | Yang Yingyi | 04:04:37 |
| 19 | Zhou Shipeng | 04:05:44 |
| 20 | Jiang Su | 04:06:04 |
| 21 | Zhong Xing | 04:06:30 |
| 22 | Hou Xuejing | 04:07:43 |
| 23 | Cheng Qingsheng | 04:08:03 |
| 24 | Liu Rusi | 04:08:39 |
| 25 | Xiong Denghua | 04:10:35 |
| 26 | Huang Jian | 04:10:59 |
| 27 | Xu Yueceng | 04:11:25 |
| 28 | Liu Haitao | 04:13:25 |
| 29 | Zhao Qingwei | 04:16:31 |
| 30 | Li Guodong | 04:17:09 |
50km women
Victory Yin Hang (CHN) born in 1997 at his first experience in the 50km.
Her time of 4:22:22 represent now the 5th place in the world ever list of the 50km women, which is shown below for the first 10 performances. Moreover is Asian record.
| Result | Competitor | DoB | Nation | Venue | Date |
| | | | | | |
| 4:08:26 | HENRIQUES Ines | 01.05.1980 | POR | Porto de Mos (PO) | 15.01.2017 |
| 4:10:59 | SVENSSON Monica | 26.12.1978 | SWE | Scanzorosciate (ITA) | 21.10.2007 |
| 4:12:16 | GINKO Elena | 30.07.1976 | BLR | Scanzorosciate (ITA) | 17.10.2004 |
| 4:16:27 | DUKURE Jolanta | 20.09.1979 | LAT | Parelepa (LAT) | 09.09.2006 |
| 4:22:22 | YIN Hang | 07.02.1997 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03.2017 |
| 4:25:22 | VIRBALYTE-DIMSIENE Brigyta | 01.02.1985 | LTU | Villa di Serio (ITA) | 17.10.2010 |
| 4:26:37 | BURNETT Katye | 07.10.1988 | USA | Santee (USA) | 29.01.2017 |
| 4:27:24 | YANG Shuqing | 30.08.1996 | CHN | Huangshan (CHN) | 05.03.2017 |
| 4:28:13 | XINOU Evangelia | 22.11.1981 | GRE | Scanzorosciate (ITA) | 17.10.2004 |
| 4:28:53 | AIDIETYTE Neringa | 05.06.1983 | LTU | Ivano-Frankivsk (UKR) | 01.10.2006 |
Second place to Yang Shuqing (CHN) in 4:27:24 (eighth performance ever in 50km women)
Third place to Jiang Shanshan (CHN) in 4:32:14
Only five athletes finished the race and 4 DNF