To accumulate energy for the Olympic Games, the Chinese team has the potential to train new talents in the long run. The results of the Budapest Athletics World Championships today | World Championships | Potential

Athletics events happen every year, especially this year. Starting from July, the track and field competitions of the World University Games, World Athletics Championships, and Hangzhou Asian Games will take turns. On August 19, 2023, the men's 20 kilometer race at the Budapest Athletics World Championships will produce the first gold medal in 49 events of this competition. The Chinese team, consisting of Zhang Jun, Wang Chaochao, and Niu Wenchao, fully participated in the competition. What are the highlights of this World Championships?

Time: The World Championships celebrate their 40th anniversary

The World Athletics Championships have been held since 1983 and are held every four years. Starting from the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, it has been held every 2 years. The Oregon World Championships, originally scheduled for 2021, have been postponed to 2022 due to the pandemic. For five consecutive years from 2021 to 2025, track and field enthusiasts will be able to watch the Olympic or World Athletics Championships every year. Starting from the 1983 Athletics World Championships, this year happens to be the 40th anniversary of the World Championships.

The World Athletics Championships also witness the development process of Chinese athletics over the past 40 years. In the first World Athletics Championships in 1983, Shanghai high jumper Zhu Jianhua won a bronze medal, which was China's first medal at the World Athletics Championships and the only medal at that tournament. In the 1991 Tokyo World Championships, Huang Zhihong, a female shot put athlete from Zhejiang, won the first gold medal in the Athletics World Championships for the Chinese team. Since the 2015 World Championships, the Chinese team has received gold medals in every edition of the tournament.

China also actively participates in the hosting of global athletics events. In 2006, Beijing held the World Youth Athletics Championships; In 2015, Beijing held the World Athletics Championships, which was the first time China had hosted these two events. Currently, Beijing is still applying to host the 2027 Athletics World Championships. The 2025 World Championships will be held in Tokyo. If Beijing's bid is successful, Asian cities will host two consecutive World Championships.

In the coming years, multiple world-class high-level athletics events will be held in China. On September 2nd, after the World Championships, Xiamen will host the World Association of Athletics Federations Diamond League. Previously, Shanghai had always been the host city of the domestic diamond league. In 2025, Nanjing will host the World Indoor Championships; In 2025, Guangzhou will host the World Relay Championship; In 2027, Yangzhou will host the World Road Running Championships.

Location: Budapest National Athletics Center

The Budapest Athletics World Championships will be held from August 19th to 27th, lasting for 9 days. Nearly 2000 athletes from approximately 200 countries and regions will compete for 49 gold medals.

Budapest has established a new national athletics center for this year's World Championships. The venue is built by the Danube River and can accommodate 35000 people during the competition. It is reported that the on-site audience of the 9-day competition will reach hundreds of thousands, and the TV audience is expected to exceed 1 billion.

Hungary has good athletic performance in the field of sports, with fencing, swimming, kayaking, and wrestling winning the most Olympic gold medals in the following events. At the Tokyo Olympics, Hungary won 6 gold medals, including 3 in kayaking and 1 in fencing, swimming, and wrestling. Budapest is the capital of Hungary and was awarded the title of "Sports Capital of Europe" in 2019. It ranked 13th in the 2022 Global Sports City Ranking.

Budapest has hosted multiple world competitions in recent years. In 2019, Budapest hosted the World Table Tennis Championships; In 2022, Budapest hosted the Swimming World Championships. The mascot of this year's Athletics World Championships is a local Hungarian sheep.

Character: Chinese young player aims to meet Olympic standards

No one is always young, but there are always people who are young. The Chinese track and field team's athletes for this competition include Gong Lijiao, who participated in the 9th competition, Olympic silver medalist, and triple jump athlete Zhu Yaming, among others. However, the performance of the Chinese young players is more worth looking forward to. Considering that the standard line for next year's Paris Olympics is relatively high, this World Championships is a rare opportunity for the Chinese athletics team to compete and meet the standards of world experts.

Among the 41 athletes of the Chinese track and field team, 20 are male athletes and 21 are female athletes, participating in 17 events, accounting for about one-third of the 49 events at this year's World Championships. The average age of 41 athletes in the Chinese team is 27 years old, and there are 11 post-2000 athletes, accounting for about a quarter.

With the global popularity of athletics, the standard line for the World Athletics Championships has also skyrocketed. Athletes participating in the World Championships either reach the World Championships qualifying line or qualify by ranking high. Out of the 17 competition events of the Chinese team, 11 events were fully participated by 3 people, including 4 events of race walking, men's marathon, men's long jump, men's triple jump, men's pole vault, women's shot put, women's hammer throw, and women's pole vault, demonstrating a certain talent potential.

Among the female shot put players is Song Jiayuan from Shanghai. At the age of 25, she won a gold medal at this year's Asian Athletics Championships with a time of 18.88 meters, exceeding the standard line of 18.80 meters at the Paris Olympics. Song Jiayuan finished 5th at the Tokyo Olympics with a personal best time of 19.47 meters.

The men's jumping event is a rapidly developing event for the Chinese athletics team in recent years. Wang Jianan won China's first world championship in long jump at the previous World Championships. The Chinese team has won medals in both the World Championships and the Olympics in the triple jump event. 24-year-old Su Wen broke the PB twice in the triple jump at the Chengdu Universiade and won the championship with a time of 17.01 meters. This is his first time participating in the World Championships.

In the men's pole vault event, the Chinese team has two participants, including Yao Jie, who has participated in three World Championships and one Olympic Games. This year, he was nominated for the World Championships by reaching the standard line of 5.82 meters, which also tied the national record; Zhong Tao, a young player born in the 2000s, qualified for the World Championships with a PB score of 5.72 meters and passed the ranking.

Considering that the opening of the Hangzhou Asian Games is less than 40 days away, and most of the track and field events at next year's Paris Olympics have reached higher standards, the Chinese track and field team's journey to the World Championships is not only looking forward to women's throwing, men's and women's walking, and men's jumping events winning medals, but also looking at the performance of young athletes and the number of Olympic athletes who meet the standards.

Author Introduction:

Chen Guoqiang is an associate professor at Shanghai Sport University and a member of the News Committee of the China Athletics Association.