Dashing into history

Sprinter Su Bingtian's Tokyo heroics a watershed moment for Asian athletics

From hurdler Liu Xiang's Athens miracle to Su Bingtian's dash to glory in Tokyo, China's athletes have come a long way on the track in recent years.

Clocking an Asian-record 9.83 seconds in Tokyo on Sunday, Su became the first Chinese to reach an Olympic 100-meter final, shattering the notion that Asians are not built to succeed in an event long dominated by the West.

Su was ultimately let down by a slow start out of the blocks in the final to finish sixth in 9.98. However, his stunning semifinal victory to qualify with the fastest time was already inspiration enough for young sprinters across Asia to follow in his lightning-fast steps.

"I hope my performance today can inspire younger athletes to keep pushing forward with their sporting careers," a proud Su said after Sunday's final at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

"After what I did today, I hope they can start to believe that, supported by scientific training, they can also crack the 10-second barrier sooner than they expect, and they can achieve more than I have in the future."

A false start in the final by Britain's Zharnel Hughes appeared to upset Su's momentum, and he was unable to replicate his explosive semifinal launch when the start gun sounded for a second time.

Italian sprinter Lamont Marcell Jacobs took gold in 9.80, ahead of Fred Kerley of the United States (9.84) and Andre de Grasse of Canada (9.89).

Despite not reaching the podium, Su's enthusiasm could not be dampened.

"I leave with no regrets at all as I gave all I have today and I've proved that us Chinese can run as fast as the world does," said Su, a 32-year-old Guangdong native.

"I've pushed my limit to the max today. I feel quite satisfied with two sub-10s in a row. Maybe I won't be able to achieve another 9.83 again. Today was the best day of my life.

"I've realized the dreams of generation after generation of Chinese athletes. I think I won't set any personal goals anymore. I will just enjoy the purity of the sport from now on."

Medal hopes

Su's American coach Randy Huntington left the stadium as probably the only member of the Chinese team to feel a little downbeat.

"I wish we could have gotten China its first medal, but it didn't happen. That's a failure, but it's not a bad failure to have," said Huntington, who was hired by the Chinese Athletics Association in 2013 to oversee sprinting and long jump training.

Huntington reckoned the quick two-hour turnaround from semifinal to final ultimately proved too taxing for Su to grab a medal.

"This is my fault to a large degree that we didn't exactly train him to be able to come back from that kind of race and do another one just as fast," he said.

"I think he could have had a silver medal if we had him a little bit better prepared … he's technically running better. You still need to work on the last part of his race. There's still a conditioning issue in the last 25 meters."

Huntington counts current men's long jump world-record holder Mike Powell and 1980s triple jump great Willie Banks among his former pupils, but he already ranks Su's Tokyo feat among his finest coaching achievements.

"Su is the now the fastest athlete of non-African descent or mixed African descent absolutely in history. That's an incredible accomplishment," said Huntington.

"Now the floodgates are going to open. You are going to have athletes from all the different Asian countries understand that they can be Su Bingtian as well."

Su had already made his mark by becoming the first Chinese to run 100m under 10 seconds in 2015.

But his career stalled in the following years, and he even mulled retirement four years ago to spend more time with his family after taking a teaching position at Jinan University in his hometown Guangzhou.

However, he couldn't resist one last attempt at Olympic glory, and two 9.91 runs in 2018 to tie the Asian record boded well for the Tokyo Games.

Injuries and a failure to qualify for the men's 100m final at the 2019 world championships in Doha sowed some seeds of doubt in Su's mind, but he rebounded with 9.98 at China's Olympic trials in June.

"The postponement of the Olympic Games might have turned out to be a good thing for me," he said.

Su singled out Liu Xiang, who won the 110m hurdles at the 2004 Athens Games, for special praise, saying: "Liu Xiang was indeed an inspiration for Chinese athletics. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't even be thinking of trying to make it to an Olympic final or win Olympic medals."

After the performance of his career on Sunday, Su is not done yet in Tokyo. He will return to the Olympic Stadium with his teammates for the 4x100 relay on Friday.

"I hope we can live up to our own expectations in the 4x100 relay to showcase the speed of China," he said.