The National Games of China in Xi'An with the 50 km race ended for the walk.
On a rainy day the results obtained were not exciting, demonstrating that China has traditionally struggled in this specialty.
If we exclude Si Tianfeng of the period 2010 - 2013 where he obtained a bronze at the World Championships in Daegu and a silver at the London Olympics, Chinese athletes in major events have never expressed themselves continuously at great levels. Some good performances at the Olympics like Yu Caohong 4th in Athens 2004; Li Janbo 4th in London 2012 and Yu Wei's in Rio 2016 (5th) and some good results at the World Championships: 5th place for Zhao Cengliang in Helsinki 2005; the 4th and 5th place of Niu Wenbin and Lu Yadong at the last World Championships in Doha but they were all individual and sporadic episodes. It has never been there, unlike the 20 km. male and female, a continuity of results and, above all, a group of high value at the same time. Even today the trend already seen at the last Olympics has been confirmed. Athletes of fair value (7 boys under 4 hours) but no points of great international importance.
The race from a competitive point of view was very interesting and was resolved only in the last 6 km. For the first 44 km. they have always remained in the Biang Tonda group (1991); He Xianghong (1998); Zashi Yanben (1996); Sun Song (1996); Meng Zhongkai (1997) and Wang Qin (1994). Some athletes from the favorites such as Lu Yadong and Wang Rui retired.
These are the split times every 10 km. for the leading group.
10 km. = 48:40 (average 4.52 km)
20 km. = 1:35:49 (47:09 - average at km.4.43)
30 km. = 2:21:41 (46:52 - average at 4.41 km)
40 km. = 3:07:26 (45:45 - average at 4.35 km)
Still 4 km. all together then the final tussle began. Biang Tongda, who had already performed well in Sapporo with a decent 7th place, has considerably increased the pace, only He Xianghong resisted him until the final lap while the others relentlessly gave up someone with notable drops like the favorite on the eve Wang Qin who finished the last two laps in 10:01 (5.00) and even the last in 13:31 (6:45). In the last 3 laps the winner walked in 8:41 (4.21) - 8:57 (4.29) and 8:47 (4.24) and went on to take the coveted title with the final time of 3:52:16. In second place He Xianghong in 3:52:30, last lap in 9.01 (4.30). In third place Zashi Yanben who gave way significantly in the last two laps (9:18 and 9.50).
Top 8 classified:
1 Bian Tongda 3:52:16
2 He Xianghong 3:52:30
3 Zashi Yangben 3:53:48
4 Sun Song 3:54:26
5 Meng Zhongkai 3:56:40
6 Wang Qin 3:58:38
7 Wang Zhenhao 3:59:11
8 Zhang Chenchen 4:01:53