体坛英语新闻：Injury-plagued Li Yanfeng fails to defend title at China's National Games

SHENYANG, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Former world champion Li Yanfeng failed to defend her women's discus title at the ongoing 12th Chinese National Games as the injury-plagued veteran only threw a best mark of 63.91 meters to take the silver here on Monday.

The 34-year-old Li of Heilongjiang, whose personal best is 67.98m, entered the competition below par with 61.86m and 59.26m in the first two rounds and only took an narrow lead for her third round effort of 63.91m.

Sichuan's Tan Jian, sixth placer at the Moscow World Championships last month, hurled 64.11m in the last round to surpass Li, while Li failed to register a valid throw in the last round to settle with the silver medal.

Li claimed the title at the 2011 Daegu worlds in South Korea with a winning mark of 66.52 meters, delivering the first worlds gold medal in field events for China since Huang Zhihong's victory in the women's shot put in 1993.

In the 2012 London Olympic Games, Li threw 67.22 meters to pocket a bronze medal. But after the Games, Li never managed to maintain systemic training till May because of the haunting lumbar disc herniation and had to give up the Moscow world considering her poor performances.

"Many people think it might be my last competition, but I will come back," said Li who plans to get married in October. "The injury really affect me a lot. I only started to build up for the Games in May. I want to thank all the doctors that have ever helped me. Winning a silver is not easy for me. I am proud of myself."

Shanghai's Yang Yanbo threw a season best of 63.30 to collect the bronze, two centimeters below her personal best of 63.32 set last year.

In the men's 110m hurdles event, China's superstar hurdler and three-time defending champion Liu Xiang was still injured out. But his teammate Xie Wenjun clocked 13.36 seconds to win the gold medal for Shanghai again.

Jiangsu's Jiangfan finished second in 13.52 while Ji Wei, representing the People's Liberation Army(PLA), trailed 0.13 seconds behind Jiang to take the bronze.

"Liu has shared his experience of competing at National Games with me. He told me to be prepared for any possible scenario and believe in myself," said Xie after the race.

"In the Moscow worlds I did not run well. I am not in my best form and I think I still have a lot to do to improve myself," added the 23-year-old, who clocked 13.59s and failed to make to the semifinal in Moscow last month.

Liaoning's Zhao Qinggang, also competed at the Moscow worlds, took the men's javelin gold with a personal best of 83.14m. His form PB of 81.74m was set in 2012.

Shanghai's Chenqi finished a far second at 75.88 while the bronze went to Sun Jianjun of Zhejiang who achieved 75.27.

The 25-year-old middle distance runner Zhao Jing of Shanghai clocked a season best of two minutes, 2.36 seconds to win the women's 800m title. It was the second gold medals she harvested in Shenyang as she won the 1500m race in a season's best of 4:12.32 here yesterday.