A Speed Racer And A Party Boy!

China is expected to dominate the 2018 Asian Games and the spotlight could be on its controversial and colourful swimmer Sun Yang. China always nets a bulk of its medals from the water.

- Stan Rayan

There is a magical feeling when one watches someone attempt­ing to step into the unknown. Three years ago, one went through such an emotion as Su Bingtian clocked 9.99s and became the first native Asian sprinter to go below 10s for the 100m at the Eugene Grand Prix in the US.

A few weeks ago, the 28-­year-old Chinese equalled the Asian re­cord (9.91s) of Qatar’s Nigeria­born Femi Ogunode in Madrid. That made him the eighth fastest runner in the world this year.

With Bingtian breaking what ap­peared to be a mental barrier, other Asian sprinters have picked up pace too and now, for the first time in history, there are three in the sub­10 club this year. China’s Xie Zhenye, like Bingtian, went under 10s twice recently in France and Switzerland and now has a best of 9.97s while Oman’s Barakat Al­ Harthi ran a 9.97s at the West Asian championships in Amman in July.

With Ogunode missing from Qatar’s line­up for Jakarta — his younger brother Tosin is the only 100m entry from that country — native Asians have a chance to reclaim the ‘fastest man’ title at the 18th Asian Games, the biggest multi­event sporting festival after the Olympics, which begins in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia on August 18.

With Qatar’s world champion high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, the 2017 International Association of Athletics Federations Athlete of the Year and athletics’ biggest name in the continent, pulling out of the Jakarta Asiad with a knee injury, the men’s 100m will be in the spotlight and has all the ingredients to pro­duce a new Asian record, too.