The competitions of the China National Autumn Championships in Leshan in the Sichuan province are in full swing.
The population is around 3,500,000 inhabitants of which 1,200,000 live in the urban area.
A decade ago the area of Mount Emei, which includes the largest local tourist attraction (the Giant Buddha of Leshan) has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Giant Buddha of Leshan is the greatest Buddha carved in the rock in the world.
This morning (during the night in Europe) the first day's competitions took place.
In the local afternoon the U20 revents will take place, while tomorrow the longest rehearsals will take place.
The results of the races are all divided between "per Team" and "individual".
In the results summary both are shown in two different sections.
20km men (7:30 am)
At the start 73 athletes, of which 53 were part of the elite group.
Athletes participating in the Doha World Championships were not present.
It soon becomes clear that it is not a day in which you will get excellent performance.
At the start the temperature touches 27° Celsius, but the humidity rate is close to 85%, so for the athletes it looks like a huge effort.
The race was a three-way battle between Sun Shuai (CHN), Xu Hao (CHN) and Cui Lihong (CHN)
All three boast an interesting personal best achieved in the current season and all in Huangshan on 9.3.2019:
Xu Hao: 1:19:57
Cui Lihiong: 1:20:30 which among other things also won the Grand Prix race in Chifeng (CHN) on 18.6.2019
Sun Shuai: 1:21.13
The three walked together for more than three quarters of the race when in the final km Sun Shuai (CHN) ferced the pace and obtaing the victory in 1:22:18
Second place in Xu Hao (CHN) in 1: 22:44
Third place in Cui Lihong (CHN) in 1:22:58
Thirty-seven athletes completed the race in the elite group, with 5 DQs and 9 DNFs
20km women (9:10 am)
At the start there were 54 athletes of whom 24 were part of the elite group.
Also in this race the athletes who will participate in the Doha World Championships were not present.
With pleasure we saw the return to Lu Xiuzhi's victory after the many injuries that troubled her last two seasons.
This year, the 2015 Beijing vice-world champion had already competed in Huangshan, where she had to retire just for yet another injury. She came back racing very cautiously in La Coruna where she had finished only in 20th place in 1:32:01.
Today's race saw her at the head of the race from the beginning to fight with Yang Liujing (CHN), Qiji Zhuoma (CHN), Juan Dandan (CHN), Ma Zhenxia (CHN) and Wang Na (CHN).
At 15km they were still all fairly close.
In the last 5 km Lu Xiuzhi imposed his experience and won in 1:30:04 time still far from that of the best days, but certainly a sign of good recovery.
Split times every 2 km. of Lu Xiuzhi: 9:03 - 8:57 - 8:58 - 9:01 - 9:04 - 9:14 - 9:11 - 9:06 - 9:00 - 8.30
Split time every 5 km. = 22:29 - 45:03 (22.34) - 1:08:00 (22:57) - 1:30:04 (22:04).
The first declarations by Lu Xiuzhi at the end of the race and given to the national sports broadcaster CCTV5 were "... today it was really difficult to get a good time. The weather was very muggy and it was difficult to breathe well. I am happy, however, to have won another national title "
Second place went to Yang Liujing in 1:30:11
Third place to Qiji Zhuoma in 1:30:40
Fourth place to Duan Dandan in 1:31:25
Fifth place to Ma Zhenxia in 1:31:48
Sixth place to Wang Na in 1:32:02
Afternoon events
10 km U20 men
Victory to Yin Jun (CHN) in the race "per Team" in 41:03
In individual race results are the following:
Victory to Chen Tiancai (CHN) in 41:14
Second place to Zhu Xiaoqing (CHN) in 41:25
Third place to Lin Zhui (CHN) in 42:07
10 km U20 women
Victory to Wu Quanming (CHN) in the race "per Team" in 45:51
In individual race results are the following:
Victory to Ji Haiying (CHN) in 46:28
Second place to Tang Shaojia (CHN) in 46:43
Third place to Meng Yanan (CHN) in 47:40
(we thank for the co-operation Sun Chao - CHN)