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Middle-East Strategies and Tactics
India's Strategies and Tactics
Asian Games 2010 Report on Middle and Long Distance Events
In the Asian Games 2010, some strategies and tactics employed by China, Middle-East and India were seen, in terms of getting gold medals. China consisted of the 'Fantastic Four' comprising of Si Tianfeng (50km men walk), Wang Hao (20km men walk), Liu Hong (20km women walk) and Zhou Chunxiu (women marathon) who won gold medals for China in these events. Hence, it can be seen that nearly all the men and women gold medalists for China are all walkers. This, I consider as a very good strategic move by China as she has been long been winning gold medals and have been able to break the walk records of Asian Games 2010.
The other area, China seem to triumph is in the marathon, mainly the women race. In the men's marathon, Korea and Japan seem to be a force to be reckon with. It is very hard to penetrate the men's marathon as these two countries, apart from the Gulf states, seem to be developing top marathon runners of the world in the Olympics and well as in World Championships. That was seen even during my days as a competitive runner between 1987 and 1995. China, during 1993, has developed runners like Wang Junxia, world record holder of 10000m and Qu Yunxia, 1500m world record holder. As the African states are coming in to the Asian Games under a different flag, it was a very good strategy to put top runners in the women's marathon. Time and again, China has shown high consistency in developing top runners in women marathon in world arena.
In fact, in 2007, I read in the newspaper that, after the victory of Zhou Chunxiu, 36 year old and 162cm tall, spoke after the London marathon 2007 victory that her next goal was to break the world record for the marathon held by Paula Radcliffe's 2hr 15min 25sec. Many people felt and still feel that it is still possible for her to break the world record if Chunxiu's training and goal-setting is going on well.
Picture 1 - Liu Hong (below), making China proud by getting gold the 20km walk.
Picture 2- Si Tianfeng (below), winning the 50km walk
Picture 3 - Wang Hao (below), winning the 20km walk joyfully with the flag of China
Picture 4 - Zhou Chunxiu - First in Asian Games 2hr 25min 00sec has a personal best of 2hr 19min 51sec, 2006, Seoul International Marathon)
Ranked 1st in the world in 2007 - Track and Field News 2007
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