Targeting a continental shift

On a drizzly morning in Nagoya on Sept 23, a 19-year-old race walker marked a milestone more than five decades in the making.

Shi Shengji won the men's half-marathon race walk in one hour, 23 minutes and 32 seconds, finishing four minutes and 29 seconds ahead of Japan's world-record holder Toshikazu Yamanishi. The victory was Shi's first Asian Games gold and China's 200th athletics gold at the continental showpiece.

It was a symbolic moment for a team in transition.

At the conclusion of the athletics competition on Tuesday, China had collected 17 gold, 14 silver and eight bronze medals thanks to 72 athletes. The haul underlined China's depth across Asian athletics, but the more important question is how much of that success can be carried onto the world stage?

With the World Athletics Championships returning to Beijing in 2027, Nagoya offered both encouragement and a reality check.

Shi's rise is one of the clearest examples of the new generation of Chinese track and field talent emerging.

He switched from middle-distance running to race walking in 2023 and, after three years of focused training, rose rapidly from the youth ranks to the top of the Asian podium.

Shi attributed his progress to painstaking technical work. "My coach goes through videos of my technique frame by frame and works on every detail," he said.

Yang Liujing, the women's half-marathon race walk champion, has a different narrative, more of a comeback story. After struggling through a difficult period and once considering retirement, the 28-year-old finally secured her first Asian Games gold.

Shi's emergence and Yang's resurgence give China both a new prospect and an experienced contender in race walking. But success at the Asian Games does not automatically translate into contention at the world level.

The same combination of youth and promise was evident on the running track.

Seventeen-year-old Chen Yujie emerged as one of the faces of China's new generation, winning three golds and a silver. She clocked 11.06 seconds to win the women's 100 meters, setting an Asian Games record, before taking silver in the 200m and helping China win both the women's and mixed 4x100m relays.

"I always thought the Asian Games success was a dream, but after coming here, I realized it wasn't as unattainable as I had imagined," Chen said.

Her confidence has grown quickly, but so have her ambitions. She wants to break 11 seconds before eventually targeting 10.60 to 10.70.

"I've gone from being a challenger to a defending champion, and holding on to that title won't be easy," Chen said after winning the 100m. "I want to keep a challenger's mindset and set my sights on the world championships and the Olympics."

That will be a far more demanding test. An Asian Games title establishes her as a leading continental sprinter, but breaking into the global elite will require a significant improvement in both speed and consistency.

"What I achieved at the Games is a real motivator," Chen said. "Now that it's done, I can already start looking ahead to the next one."

China successfully defended its sprint relay titles and also won the mixed 4x100m. Experienced sprinters such as Xie Zhenye and Liang Xiaojing continued to provide stability, while younger runners such as Chen increasingly took on greater responsibility.

"Relay is not an individual event. It is the result of the whole team's effort," Xie said.

The combination of experience and youth gives China greater depth in an event where teamwork can be as important as individual speed.

Chen Yuanjiang also ended China's eight-year wait for the men's 110m hurdles title.

His winning time of 13.15 seconds was enough for Asian gold, but the 20-year-old immediately set his sights higher.

"It's still not good enough," Chen Yuanjiang said, initially targeting 13.10 before looking to break through the 13-second barrier.

His Asian title underlined China's strength in the event, but his own targets point to the gap he still hopes to close.

Strength in depth

The women's throwing events remain an established strength for China.

Chinese athletes swept the gold medals in the women's shot put, discus, javelin and hammer throw, underlining the nation's depth.

Eighteen-year-old Yan Ziyi won the javelin with her first and only throw of the final, hitting 70.46 meters and beating Japan's Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi.

"I'm grateful that people gave me the nickname 'Yan one and done,'" Yan said. "I haven't let them down, and I think I've lived up to it."

Her ambition goes beyond Asian titles. "I want China to stand on top (of the world) and start my own era," she said.

Her 70-meter-plus form suggests genuine world-medal potential, although consistency against the very best will be the bigger test.

Nineteen-year-old Zhang Jiale won the hammer throw, with teammate Zhao Jie taking silver. She twice bettered the Asian record this season, reaching 79.62m.

Her next target is 80m, and she hopes to challenge for the title at the world championships in Beijing.

At the other end of the age spectrum, 32-year-old Feng Bin defended her discus title with 63.83m. Although the mark fell short of her target in Nagoya, she had thrown a season-best 67.46m to win the Diamond League Final earlier this month.

Her aim is to win gold at the home world championships before pursuing Olympic gold in Los Angeles.

The results of Yan, Zhang and Feng show why the throwing events remain among China's strongest areas. More importantly, they provide China with a group of athletes with realistic potential to challenge for medals at a global level.

The jumping events produced some encouraging signs, too.

Su Wen won the men's triple jump with 17.42m, breaking a 36-year-old Asian Games record and reaching the qualifying benchmark for next year's world championships.

Shi Yuhao, meanwhile, upgraded his bronze from Hangzhou to gold in the men's long jump, winning with a season-best 8.17m.

Neither mark, however, would challenge the world leaders, underlining the gap China still needs to bridge.

China's recent world championships record also highlights the challenge of converting Asian success into global glory.

At the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing, the team won one gold, seven silvers and one bronze. At the 2025 world championships in Tokyo, it collected just two silvers and two bronzes.

The return of the world championships to Beijing in 2027 therefore presents both an opportunity for, and a clear test of, the current generation of the nation's track and field athletes.

Shi Shengji's 200th Asian Games gold was more than a landmark in the record books. It offered a glimpse of what the new generation can offer, and sets a bar for the bigger stages to come.

liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn