Su Bingtian wins China National Games relay silver alongside ‘his student’ Yan Haibin
- Photo finish sees Guangdong pipped to 4x200m gold by Shandong province in Asian record time
- Asia’s fastest man is associate professor at Jinan University where relay teammate and 100m rival Yan Haibin attends
Su is an associate professor at Jinan University in his native Guangdong province where the 18-year-old is a student, something the veteran track star made light of after his 100m final victory on Tuesday.
“Actually, I came here to compete as a teacher. Yan Haibin, who raced against me today, is a student of my university. This was a race between a teacher and his student, which is a memory I will treasure,” Su told CCTV after winning gold in the final where Yan finished fourth.
Su ran the first leg of Thursday’s relay final with Yan running the last leg for Guangdong. The team, which also included Zhang Ruixuan and Mo Youxue, only just missed out to the Shandong team who set a new Asian record.
Both teams were clocked at 1:20.83 but the photo finish saw Su and his teammates handed silver by the smallest of margins after Shandong’s Qiao Zhen just beat Yan at the finish line. Sichuan finished third in 1:21.12.
Su did not run in the individual 200m event, with the final won on Wednesday by Fujian’s Tang Xingqiang who stunned Asian record holder and defending champion Xie Zhenye with a personal best 20.39 seconds.
Su Bingtian finally wins gold at National Games
It is not clear if he will represent his home province in the 4x100m relay final on Friday.
With another two medals at these National Games, the 32-year-old has lived up to what he told CCTV after his 9.95 second sprint to a first gold – namely that he wanted to inspire young sprinters.
“I hope through my own efforts, I can become an example to inspire more young sprinters,” Su told the state broadcaster at the Xian Olympic Sports Centre.
He has done just that with the 21-year-old 100m finalist Chen Guanfeng referring to him as “big brother” and “an inspiration”.
“I don‘t think I’m a talent. I just follow the footsteps of our big brother Su. We are the next generation who want to catch up with him,” Chen said after the 100m final, in which he finished fifth.
“He actually doesn‘t need to teach us anything, or come to encourage us. All of his races are an inspiration for us, and he would like us to challenge him. As long as he stands on the track, that’s all the encouragement we need.”
Su Bingtian’s 100m Olympic sprint final tops China TV ratings
Su was critical of the media who had written him off after he won silver at the 2017 National Games in Tianjin.
“I want to tell the young sprinters that you are still in your 20s and you can still fight for at least two editions of the Olympics. Don‘t let stereotypes about sprinters’ age or ability limit your growth.
“I think we can write our own life story. So I want to tell others my story. I want to set an example. You can still run fast at the age of 32.”
China closer to Tokyo relay bronze, Britain set to be stripped of silver
The Guangdong sprinter has had a late career surge, capped off with his 9.83 second Asian record in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games semi-finals and a first appearance by a Chinese athlete in the Summer Games showpiece.
That was followed up in Xian with a first National Games gold which was won in another sub-10 second time, just as he had predicted after the semi-final.
In Thursday’s other relay final, the Sichuan team won the 4x400m mixed relay gold in a national record 3:17.41.
Men’s and women’s 400m gold medal winners Yang Lei and Yang Huizhen added another gold to their 2021 National Games medal haul as part of the Sichuan team.
