Su Bingtian 苏炳添: Asia’s New Sprint Star

I was awestruck by Su Bingtian’s (苏炳添) victory at the recently concluded Super Grand Prix in Kawasaki. The Chinese 100m dash record holder, stopped the clock at a wind-aided 10.04s (+ 2.9 m/s). The young Su, still only 22-years old, edged out experienced international campaigners Mike Rodgers (10.05s) and Kim Collins (10.07s). Rodgers is the 60m dash World indoor silver medalist from Doha. The ageless Collins, a respected figure in athletics circle, won a memorable 100m dash bronze in Daegu – seven years after his unexpected world title in Paris.

Read the IAAF article here

The fast-starting Collins grabbed the early lead. Both Su and Rodgers overtook Collins at the latter parts of the race. Perhaps the overly windy conditions (the flags were visibly flapping) blew the field wide open. Jet lag could have slowed down the reaction times of the Western sprinters, to the advantage of the acclimatized and well-adapted Su. Nevertheless, the Chinese upstart achieved a confidence boosting victory.

 

Photos from sports.titan24.com and fujian.people.com.cn

The Japanese are, by far, Asia’s most illustrious sprinting nation. Over the long history of the modern Olympic Games, Asians have won flat sprinting medals twice - Susantika Jayasinghe’s (சுசந்திக ஜெயசிங்க்ஹி) 200m dash silver (originally a bronze) in Sydney and Japan’s 4x100m relay bronze in Beijing. At the World Championships, Jayasinghe’s 200m silver (Athens 1997) and bronze  (Osaka 2007) and  Shingo Suetsugo’s (末續 慎吾) 200m dash bronze in Paris (2003) comprise the continent’s total medal haul in the biennial event.

Read: “Asian Sprinting: Japan’s Olympic Bronze”

Su’s curriculum vitae is impressive. He had won 100m dash gold medals at the 2010 Asian Games and the 2011 Asian Championships, prior to winning a bronze during last year’s World University Games in China.

In a span of 5 years, Su had lowered his 100m dash personal best from 10.59s in 2006 to 10.16s in 2011- a Chinese national record. Su’s best finish in a a major championship is 5th place at the 60m dash semis at the Istanbul World Indoor Championships, where he clocked 6.74s – almost two-hundredths of second slower than his 6.58s Chinese national record.

To put things into perspective, the standing Asian continental record is held by the Nigerian-born Samuel Francis at 9.99s. The Japanese troika of Koji Ito 伊東 浩司 (10.00s), Nobuharo Asahara (朝原 宣治) (10.02s) and Suetsugo (10.03s are the fastest natural-born Asians. It could take some time for Su to approach the 10-second barrier legally, but he does have a fighting chance.

I firmly believe that Asians aren’t genetically slower than athletes of West African descent (Chinese weightlifters have won gold medals in the explosive event). Perhaps it’s just a cultural manner (I’d have to look for that particular Danish study) and the fact that, historically, Asian performance in athletics has been generally below par.

As Su matures as an athlete, I hope he stays injury free. Asia could sure use another athletics icon.

Doping in Athletics: A Perennial Plague

A few days ago, the Jamaican sprinter Steve Mullings tested positive for a masking agent, barely two weeks before the Daegu World Athletics Championships. Mullings holds the third fastest 100m-dash time in the world this year, at 9.80s, and was expected to be amongst the top contenders for the century dash crown. A few days after, the American sprinter Mike Rodgers (fourth fastest in the 100m at 9.85s), also made the headlines for testing positive for a banned stimulant. Rodgers, according to his agent, apparently drank an energy drink containing the prohibited substance.

Doping is an ever-present threat to the credibility of elite sports, not just athletics. The aforesaid failed doping tests brought to mind the infamous Ben Johnson scandal. Who could ever forget the brooding, powerfully built Johnson? The fast-starting Jamaican-born Canadian blasted out of the blocks at the 1988 Olympic 100m dash final in a world record time of 9.79s. Johnson was disqualified days later for failing a drug test. He was stripped of his gold medal under much controversy.

In the investigation that followed, Johnson’s coach, Charlie Francis, insisted that they had been set-up. The type of steroid (stanozolol) that came out at the failed post-Olympic test wasn’t Johnson’s drug of choice (it was actually furazabol). The duo admitted to using drugs, but countered that the practice is widespread among the track & field elite.

According to a New York Times article, Francis actually tried to persuade the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the sport’s governing body, to put a stop to the doping practice in the late 1970’s. The exhortations fell on deaf ears and Francis allegedly turned to the drugs themselves to level the playing field for his athletes, said a former Canadian sports official in the aforesaid article.

Since Ben Johnson, the powers-that-be has been more vigilant in policing its ranks. But the cheaters found ways to break the rules. Through the years, the BALCO scandal tainted big names like multiple-Olympic medallist Marion Jones and her husband former 100m-dash world record holder Tim Montgomery. Weeks before the 2004 Athens Olympics, the host country’s top medal hopes, Kostas Kenteris (200m gold medallist in the Sydney Olympics) and Ekaterini Thanou faked a motorcycle accident in an effort to explain a missed drug test. Months earlier, several Indian athletes flunked doping tests administered at a training camp, casting doubts at the validity of India’s breakthrough performance in last year’s Commonwealth Games.

The Mullings case prompted the IAAF to impose mandatory drug testing for all the 2,000 athletes competing in this August’s World Championships. Amidst the renewed slew of failed tests – regardless of the reason or gravity of the offense – one bears in mind the allegations of Ben Johnson and his coach about doping being deeply ingrained.

However, drug testing has been quite stringent – among the developed countries at least. In Britain for instance, athletes are required to submit their schedule (specific to the hour) months in advance, to facilitate the random drug testing (read Tom Fordyce’s series of posts to get a clearer picture). Big names like Allyson Felix and Bryan Clay have volunteered to participate in Project Believe, where frequency of the drug testing goes beyond global accepted standard.

These draconian measures are undoubtedly hard on the elite athletes, but are a necessary step towards cleaning up the sport.

This article also appears in In The Zone

Kim Collins’ Second Wind

The come-backing Kim Collins is on fire!

He  retired at the end of the 2009 Berlin World Championships, but returned to high-level competition early this year. In several indoor meets in Germany, the sprinter from the small island country of Saint Kitts and Nevis, rewrote the 2011 top lists twice. He stopped the clock at 6.52s in Dusseldorf. A few days later, he bettered this mark by two-hundredths of second in Karlsruhe. Unfortunately, a thigh injury prevented Collins from replicating his razor sharp form in the final.

The 34-year old had won his fair share of accolades. Collins was crowned world champion in the 100m dash in 2003. Aside from this, he had won a bronze in the same event in Helsinki 2005 and a 200m bronze at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships.

In Paris, Collins outclassed a star-studded (some, steroid-laced) field which included the likes of disgraced former world record holder Tim Montgomery and Briton Dwain Chambers. From Lane 1, Collins had a blistering start. He clung on first place (10.07s) in a blanket finish with 100m world junior record holder Darrel Brown (10.08s) from Trinidad and Tobago and Britain’s Darren Campbell (10.08s).

It was the slowest winning time in Championship history, tying Carl Lewis’ 10.07s time at the inaugural edition in Helsinki back in 1983.  Nevertheless, a world champion is still a world champion. Not many elite athletes can call themselves that.

To be honest, I only appreciated the significance of Collins’ feat whilst writing this entry. Compared to his competitors, the Caribbean sprinter was minuscule in terms of both height and heft. He was far from the stereotype of a burly speedster. There were no brash displays of arrogance when he won; Collins did not showboat. He just smiled as he proudly waved his island country’s flag, basking under the warmth of his first major crown.

Collins last dipped below the 10-second barrier in 2003, where he ran 9.99s in Zurich. He has a personal best of 9.98s from way back in 2002 and 2003 (he ran this four times) – modest by today’s standards. He has qualified for the Olympic 100m dash final twice, in Sydney and in Athens. In Beijing, the affable Collins placed 6th in the 200m final.

It’s good to see old hands such as Collins achieve stellar marks. He has claimed the scalp of fiery upstarts like Mike Rodgers and the under-performing Christophe Lemaitre. Rodgers is 9-years younger than Collins, whilst Lemaitre is around 14-years Collins’  junior. At the rate Collins is going, he might just surprise everyone (but himself!) in Daegu come August!

Fierce USA 4x100m Quartet clocks 37.45s

I love the gutsy performance of the American Men’s 4x100m relay team at the Zurich Diamond League. Without the pressure of a big level meet, the greatest sprinting nation in the world romped to a 37.45s world-leading time. The quartet of Trell Kimmons (who just ran a PB of 9.95s at the same meet), Wallace Spearmon, Tyson Gay and Mike Rodgers all contributed to the fifth fastest clocking of all-time, en route to their 5-meter drubbing of the Jamaican relay team.

The baton exchanges were far from perfect. In fact, the final pass between Gay and Rodgers was a little too stretched for comfort. But then again, these four haven’t ran together as much.

Watch the following clip from Universal Sports. Notice the fierceness on Tyson Gay’s face!

Additional links:

Results

Diamond League events report

Video Credits:

Universal Sports