CHINESE teenager Wang Jianan pulled off China’s first ever world long jump medal at the world championships Tuesday when Olympic champion and world record holder David Rudisha took his second world title in 800m and Usain Bolt eased to the 200m semifinal.

    Wang, turning 19 Thursday, took a bronze medal with a leap of 8.18 meters, creating China’s best performance in the men’s long jump at the world championships.

    “I did not realize it will be my birthday until yesterday. I have been concentrating on training for the world championships. I was quite steady today,” said Wang.

    “On the last jump, I thought maybe I could fight for a silver, but I got a fault. I made a mistake,” he said. “Maybe this is because I don’t have much experience.”

    Although surprising to fans, the long jump performances weren’t wholly unexpected within China’s track and field fraternity. This has all been part of China’s plan since it brought on American veteran coach Randy Huntingdon to guide its long jump team nearly two years ago.

    Huntingdon previously coached Willie Banks, the former triple jump world record holder, and is perhaps best known for helping Mike Powell break the nearly 23-year-old world record in the long jump at the 1991 world championships in Tokyo. Powell still holds the world mark.

    When Huntingdon arrived in China, however, he had to start with the basics.

    “How to sprint. How to run,” he said. “How to actually create a runway and then how to execute the last six steps and the last three steps.”

    And there was a mental obstacle to overcome, as well. China has never had success in the long jump before — or track in general, for that matter, with the exception of Liu Xiang’s historic feat — so it took time for Huntingdon’s pupils to develop the belief they could compete with the best.

    “If you look at swimming and diving, or weightlifting,” he says, the Chinese “already understand what it is to win. In this sport, it’s now learning how to win.”

    China’s Gao Xinglong and Li Jinzhe also entered the final.

    Wang and Gao came out and leaped 8.14 meters back-to-back on their first attempts. Li, a showman sporting red hair and a black and white arm sleeve like an NBA player, bowed down in the sand with hands clasped overhead in prayer when he, too, cleared 8 meters.

    Winner Greg Rutherford, who knows something about the pressures of competing in front of a raucous home crowd, was impressed by how they handled the moment.

    “It was very, very special for these guys to have three of them in the final,” he said. “For us, as jumpers, it’s great to have a big crowd out there, shouting and screaming.”(SD-Xinhua)