*

Underdog Sichuan Relay Team Wins at Bird's Nest

Tuesday, 27th May 2008 ~ Maggie ~ Link ~ Comments (0)

*
Liu Xiang won the 110-meter hurdles at the weekend's Good Luck Beijing Athletics Open—no surprise there. And he praised the track at the Bird's Nest—also not surprising. But what was surprising, and inspiring, at the meet, was the come-from-behind victory of the Sichuan relay team in the 4X100 meters race.

The 4X100 final was supposed to be a run-off between the Chinese national team and Japan, and toward the end of the third leg it looked like that was exactly what would happen. But the Chinese team fumbled the last baton handoff, leaving Japan in the lead with Guangdong (province) in second. In the final leg, though, Yin Hualong from Sichuan overtook the Japanese front runner from two meters behind, winning the race for Sichuan with a time of 39.45 seconds.

It was an unexpected and uplifting victory for the team from the province that has seen so much devastation since the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake. Yin reportedly pointed to the name of his province on his jersey and proudly declared "I'm from Sichuan!" at the finish.

Tags: Good Luck Beijing, Liu Xiang, Sichuan

Comments

This blog item has no attached comments. Be the first! See below...

Comments form

If you'd like to use the comments form for registered users, please login.

If you'd like to register, please click here.