2019 is a year of steady progress in Chinese track and field. In the world championships of track and field in Doha, Chinese track and field won 3 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze, ranking fourth in the medal list and achieving the best record in 26 years. At the same time, a total of 49 athletes in 18 small items have reached the competition standard of Tokyo Olympic Games, and 10 athletes in 9 small items have reached the competition requirements of Tokyo Olympic Games. Eight individual projects, including men’s 20km, 50km walking race, women’s 100 m race and women’s marathon, were eligible for full competition. 228 days later, the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will begin. China’s track and field is actively preparing for the battle in order to achieve the goal of winning 2-3 gold medals and 6-8 medals.
“Both inside and outside” preparing for Tokyo
Duan Shijie, chairman of China Track and Field Association, said in an interview: “The Tokyo Olympic Games is very much expected to achieve good results for Chinese people, but the form is relatively severe. Track and field is a basic item and should contribute to the Chinese delegation. In the World Championships in Qatar, we have achieved good results, but as sports people, we have walked down from the podium. Everything starts from scratch and we need to find problems carefully.”
In order to fight the Tokyo Olympic Games well, the Chinese track and field association actively prepared for the “internal and external training. In order to optimize the preparation management structure, the association split the original 3 training departments into 8, implemented management responsibilities, and improved the level of fine training and professional management. At the same time, plus-sized policy incentives, coaches implement the annual salary system, athletes approve allowances and implement rewards according to the annual competition results and rankings, and stimulate the enthusiasm of preparing for the war. On the basis of optimizing the internal management mechanism, in order to improve the training level of athletes, the China Association of Athletics plus-sized the strength of “going out, please come in”, and successively hired 19 foreign coaches, 22 overseas training bases have been signed, and the number of teams trained abroad with foreign teachers has reached 10 and nearly 60, allowing athletes to “dance with wolves” in a high-level foreign environment “.
In addition, aiming at the problems of short physical fitness and frequent injuries of athletes, the Tian Association actively promoted the logistics support and medical service of the national team. At present, there are 81 physical engineers, scientific researchers and medical personnel serving with the team all the year round. At the same time, he signed a contract to introduce international scientific research teams and medical rehabilitation institutions, and cooperated with 32 domestic scientific research units and enterprises to protect the athletes training competition. At this year’s World Championships in Doha, the Chinese delegation deployed a security team of 46 people and brought all the large-scale therapeutic instruments used in daily use to Doha, this also provides a strong guarantee for Chinas track and field team to create historic good results.
“Check the gaps and fill the gaps” clearly recognize the deficiencies
Tian Xiaojun, vice chairman of China Track and Field Association, pointed out that although China’s track and field achieved remarkable results in 2019, we also found many problems through the competition. “Only by finding and solving problems accurately can we improve our work, improve the success rate of the competition and better complete the Tokyo Olympic Games.”
According to the introduction, at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, China failed to participate in 23 events, which was close to half of the events. None of the men’s middle and long distance running, men’s three shots (shot, discus, hammer) and women’s three jumps (high jump, long jump, and triple jump) entered the competition, the results of jumping with men in female middle-distance race are also unsatisfactory. Tian Xiaojun said: “The backwardness of these projects has seriously restricted the overall development of track and field.” Judging from the results of the world championships, all the 9 medals won by the Chinese team come from women’s walking and throwing events, which is also an advantageous event that China’s track and field can call at present, among which women’s 50-kilometer walking race is still a non-Olympic event, women’s throwing projects also have uneven levels of internal development. “The few advantageous projects and the narrow gold face will be the long-term dilemma faced by Chinese track and field.” Tian Xiaojun said.
Japan has always been a strong competitor of China in the Olympic Games. At the Tokyo Olympic Games next year, the Japanese team fighting locally is bound to launch a fierce impact on the position of “Asian boss” in the Chinese Olympic Games. According to Tian Xiaojun, there are three main competitions between China and Japan in the track and field events of Tokyo Olympic Games: Men’s race walking, men’s sprint and men’s marathon. At the World Championships in Doha, Japan won the men’s 20-kilometer and 50-kilometer championships, achieving a breakthrough in gold medal zero. Meanwhile, in the men’s 4 × 100 m relay, the Japanese team set a new Asian record in the final, while the Chinese team only won the seventh place. “Judging from the best results of the year, many people in Japan have better results than us, and the situation next year is extremely severe.” In addition, Tian Xiaojun said that some key people in key projects had abnormal performance, athletes had physical weakness, psychological weakness, injuries and injuries, and problems such as accuracy and lack of details needed to be solved urgently. “We should seize the good momentum presented by the World Championships in Doha, build a more scientific and effective compound team, make up for the shortcomings, accurately set the North station, consolidate the gold medal points, and expand the face of the competition, strive to create more excellent results in the Tokyo Olympics.”
According to the China Association of Athletics sports work plan (2020-2024), “by 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, on the basis of maintaining and consolidating the advantages of existing events, the advantages of the destination gold winning project have been consolidated, the potential advantage project strength has been significantly improved, the strength of impact medals has been enhanced, and the comprehensive strength of competitive sports has been enhanced, ranking first in the world’s second group. The specific indicators are: more than 50% of the projects meet the standards (more than 24 items),20% of the projects enter the top eight (about 10 items), and win 2-3 gold medals and 6-8 medals, it ranks first in the world’s second group.”
Tokyo Olympic Games is imminent, and the road to the battle is not smooth. Duan Shijie said: “The Olympic Games is to reshuffle the cards and break the original pattern. Newcomers bring unexpected surprises. This is the charm of the Olympic Games. If every Olympic Games is regimented rows, the former champion will sit in that position again, and the charm of the Olympic Games will be gone. Therefore, even if we have won the Olympic champion, we still cannot relax and still have to compete. Other potential advantage projects and long-term backward projects should strive to move forward and turn over their battles. In the Tokyo Olympic Games, we Chinese track and field should have a breakthrough and good spirit, not only to win gold medals, but also to win honor for our country. It is also necessary to show the spirit of the Chinese nation.”