The Chinese, as usual, have a very strong youth age group available for 2005 (as exemplified by shotputter Fan Wei at  left). However it remains to be seen whether they live-up to their tradition and only send a handful of their best available athletes to the World Youth Championships in Marrakech with the rest being a long way behind the top.

One thing is very clear, with more than ten World youth leading marks in 2005, China will surely end up with several medals from the championships.

Although it's not an official rule, those who competed in the National Youth Championships in 2005 have a better possibility of ending up in Marrakech than those who opted just to compete in senior events. It's a National Games year again, and even some youth athletes are looking for a medal position there which will probably see them dropping the World Youths off their list of competitions during the summer.

Some of China's strongest medal prospects:

Boys

100 m
Zhao Haohuan, b. 20 Feb 1988, Guangdong
10.32 as a 16-year-old in 2004, 10.54 in the only competition of this season in April. Also has an indoor pb of 6.68 over 60m in 2004.

400 m
Liu Xiaosheng, b. 5 Jan 1988, Guangdong
World leading 46.91 personal best in April, ran 47.35 last season.

High jump
Huang Haiqiang, b. 8 Feb 1988, Zhejiang
Has jumped 2.15m twice already this season, personal best 2.21m from last season. National Youth Champion 2005. World leading youth athlete in 2004.
Jumped 2.00m as a 14-year-old in 2002.

Pole vault
Yang Yansheng, b. 5 Jan 1989, Shandong
Has jumped 5.15m twice this season, also his world leading mark. Outdoor personal best of 5.20m from last season as a 15-year-old and a massive 5.30m from indoors in February 2005.

Liu Junjie, b. 8 Jan 1988, Beijing
Personal best of 5.00m in April 2005.

Long jump
Lin Huadeng, b. 15 Jan 1988, Fujian
Personal best of 7.79m in May 2005. Second place in the world youth lists 2005.

Triple jump
Jiang Wei, Guizhou
National Youth Champion 2005 with a world leading mark 15.98m in May 2005.

Shot
Wang Like, b. 2 Apr 1989, Shandong
National Youth Champion 2005 with a personal best of 20.20m.

Fan Wei, b. 10 Sep 1988, Beijing
2nd in the National Youth Championships with a personal best of 20.00m.

Discus
Xin Jia, b. 1 Mar 1988,
World leading 61.97m personal best in the Australian Olympic Festival in Sydney in January 2005. Also has a personal best of 54.57m with the 2kg implement in May 2005.

10,000 m walk
Zhu Zhiqiang, b. 1 Jul 1988, Jiangsu
National Youth Champion 2005 with a personal best of 42:18.9h in February 2005, also a world leading mark.

Yang Tao, b. 12 Dec 1989, Yunnan
2nd in the National Youth Championships with a personal best of 42:38.4, also 2nd in the world in 2005.

Although Li Gaobo (b. 23 Jul 1989) is surely the best youth walker in the world right now, he will surely miss the World Youth Championships. He has already qualified for the World Championships in Helsinki and the National Games as well. Li walked 1:18:07 20km, world youth best and 2nd best by a junior in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Cixi in April 2005. He is also the National Junior Champion in 20km road walk.

reprinted from the IAAF, written by JMirko Jalava, photo by Getty Images

to page 2

click here for other articles