Today (June 11), China’s young women's javelin thrower Yan Ziyi won the Diamond League meet in Oslo with an opening throw of 67.11 m, claiming another Diamond League single-meet victory in the event.
On the Diamond League we also hear the term “season champion.” What’s the difference between that and a “single-meet champion”?
They correspond respectively to:the Diamond League single-meet champion and the season (annual) champion (also the season final champion).
Among them,the latter — the season champion — is the highest honor in the Diamond League.From 2010 to 2016 the annual champion was decided by a points-based ranking system; from 2017 onward the final directly determines the champion. After the rule change, the finals of each Diamond League event became far more meaningful.
Since its inception in 2010, the World Athletics Diamond League has been the stage for the world’s top track and field stars. Chinese athletes have continued to make breakthroughs in the series — from Liu Xiang’s commanding ascent in the 110m hurdles, which put Chinese speed and power on the Diamond League summit for the first time, to Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye creating historic wins in the 100m and 200m, and Gong Lijiao being crowned season champion three times... Chinese athletes are leaving an increasingly distinctive mark on this premier athletics competition.
To date, China has two athletes who have won a total of four Diamond League season titles, and both are field-event athletes.They are Gong Lijiao, whose main event is the women’s shot put, and Lü Huihui, the women’s javelin thrower.
Gong LijiaoShe can be said to be the most brilliant of today’s Chinese athletes among Diamond League season champions. Her achievement of winning the season title three consecutive years — 2017, 2018, 2019 — is unrivaled. Viewed on the world stage, her accomplishments are equally dazzling.
Image source: Diamond League
Beyond her Diamond League achievements, Gong Lijiao is the women’s shot put gold medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the world champion in 2017 and 2019.
The other athlete, Lü Huihui, was China’s first women’s javelin Diamond League season champion and, after Gong Lijiao, the second Chinese athlete to earn this honor; she won the title in 2019.
China currently has 39 Diamond League single-meet victories (two of them in relay events), covering nine events across field and track.
The first Chinese athlete to reach the top of a Diamond League individual podium was Liu Xiang, competing as the “host” in 2011: he not only won the 110m hurdles at that year’s Shanghai meeting, but the following year he captured the event three times, including wins at Shanghai and at Eugene in the USA.
The most recent single-meet champion is the Chinese women's javelin thrower mentioned at the start, young talent Yan Ziyi, who won at today's Oslo meeting. Notably, she recently threw 71.74m at the Diamond League Xiamen meet in May, breaking the Asian record; that result launched her Diamond League campaign and earned her her first Diamond League single-meet title, making her future prospects very promising.
Also worth noting is Su Bingtian's 10.11s in the men's 100m at the 2017 Shanghai meet, which made him the firstChinese athlete; Xie Zhenye at the 2019 London meet set a new Asian record in the men's 200m with 19.88s and won; Zhang Guowei's decisive 2.36m at the 2015 Oslo meet.
Also, at the 2016 Shanghai meet the Chinese men's 4×100m team (Chen Shiwei / Xie Zhenye / Su Bingtian / Zhang Peimeng) ran 38.71s to win, breaking the meet record. At the same meeting the Chinese women's 4×100m team also won in 43.04s, likewise breaking the meet record.
Attached is a record table of Chinese athletes who have won individual event titles at the Diamond League:
From Liu Xiang's pioneering summit, to Gong Lijiao, Su Bingtian and Xie Zhenye's continued breakthroughs, and now the next generation such as Yan Ziyi carrying the torch. Every step to the top by Chinese track and field athletes in the Diamond League vividly reflects the flourishing development of China's speed and athletics; we can look forward to more outstanding performances from our athletes in the future!
