BANGKOK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — The defending champion Jiang Qiuyan will strive for the first gold medal on Thursday morning, which will possibly trigger China’s golden haul at the 24th Universiade in Bangkok.
Jiang Qiuyan clocked in a Universiade best of one hour 33 minutes and 13 seconds to claim the women’s 20km walk title, the first athletics gold medal at the 23rd World University Games in Izmir, Turkey.
“I do hope Jiang will successfully defend her title and contribute the first gold medal of Universiade to our country,” said Wang Gang, the leader of the Chinese delegation to the 24th Universiade.
The first gold medal has always drawn great attention in all sorts of international multi-sport games, and luckily, China has the ace athletes for the long-distance field competition such as 20km walk and marathon.
“However, we can not be too confident on grabbing this gold medal, since the results are largely influenced by the judges,” said Wu Yuejiang, leader of the Chinese athletics team.
The 24th Universiade will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from Aug. 8 to 18. Athletes from 156 countries and regions will attend the 11-day university multi-sport games.