Great sprint forward for China
CHINESE sprinting took its own great leap forward after the country’s 4x100 meters men’s relay team won a shock silver medal at the world championships behind Usain Bolt’s all-conquering Jamaica.
Led by birthday boy Su Bingtian, the Chinese roared home third across the line in Saturday’s final in Beijing but were upgraded to silver after the United States was disqualified for a bungled changeover.
“We made history,” said Zhang Peimeng, who ran the anchor leg as China clocked 38.01 seconds, 0.65 behind the Jamaicans.
“There was enormous pressure when I took the baton from Su. I knew a medal was close and I really didn’t want to be the one who messed up.”
After the Americans did just that, when Tyson Gay’s hand-off to Mike Rodgers was deemed illegal, it was China who headed bronze medalist Canada, Germany and France, while Britain failed to finish after dropping the baton when in third place.
Bolt paid tribute to the technical excellence of the Chinese quartet of Zhang, Mo Youxue and Xie Zhenye and their diminutive 1.72-meter tall talisman Su, who had stunned athletics by becoming the first Asian man to reach a world championship 100 final a week ago.
“They did their country proud,” said the Jamaican superstar after completing yet another sprint treble. “I was watching them in the warm-up and I was saying to the guys that they have one of the smoothest baton changes I have ever seen.”
Dwarfed by hulking Jamaicans Bolt, Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter and Nickel Ashmeade, Su was overcome after the Bird’s Nest, which erupted on learning of the US disqualification, serenaded him on his 26th birthday.
“This is the biggest moment of life,” he said after China’s dash to glory. “Wow, imagine that 80,000 people sang Happy Birthday to me,” said Su, who earlier this year became the first Asian-born man to run under 10 seconds.
Former world and Olympic hurdle champion Liu Xiang said: “Lady Luck was on China’s side but they deserve it. They have worked extremely hard for this and ran to their full potential.”
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