Wang still strides tall on world stage

Wang Hao celebrates after winning the men's 20km walking event at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou Nov 21, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

GUANGZHOU - China's Wang Hao reaffirmed his status as the world's best race walker by easily winning the men's 20km event in front of thousands of spectators on the road outside Aoti Main Stadium on Sunday.

Making his Asian Games debut, the 21-year-old World Cup champion beat out teammate Chu Yafei, who won the silver medal, and Korea's Kim Hyun-sub, who took bronze.

"This is the first gold medal in athletics in the Asian Games, so it was very important not to lose," said Wang.

"Of course, Chu Yafei and I had pressure, but we knew we had to ignore it and just fight hard to win."

Wang controlled the race right from the start and recorded his best time of the season at 1:20:50. Chu clocked 1:21:57 while Kim was 1:22:47.

"My result is not good enough," said Wang, who has been hampered by a tibia for the past year and only finished second in the 50km walk at the 2009 National Games. "But it's my best of the season, so I am satisfied with it."

Runner-up at the 2009 Berlin World Championships, Wang was China's third male athlete to win a medal in the event. His sole target in Guangzhou was to snatch the gold.

"I trained really hard before the Asian Games, and there are not many rivals in Asia, so the race was not really tough," said Wang, who is already focused on the 2012 London Olympic Games.

"You know Chinese athletes have some advantages in race walking because we are smaller and lighter than other nationalities and we are natural athletes," he said.

"The coach told us to keep the leading positions. I controlled the rhythm of the race and my teammate Chu cooperated with me very well."

Korea's Kim was considered Wang's main rival before the race after clocking the world's third-best (1:19:36) earlier this year.

"I'm disappointed not to win, but I didn't walk well," Kim said. "This was not my best time."

China Daily