DONG BIN claimed victory in the triple jump at the World Indoor Athletics Championships on Saturday, becoming only the third athlete from China to win a gold medal in the event’s history.

    The 27-year-old from Changsha led the competition from start to finish, taking gold with a best leap of 17.33 meters at the Oregon Convention Center.

    Germany’s Max Hess took silver with 17.14 while Frenchman Benjamin Compaore won bronze.

    Only two other Chinese athletes — sprint hurdler Liu Xiang in 2008 and shot putter Sui Xinmei in 1991 have won gold at the world indoors before.

    Born in the city of Changshan in China’s Hunan Province, Dong began triple jumping at the age of 14. He first represented his county internationally in 2006 at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing but he didn’t make it to the final.

    Less than four years later, he won his first of two Asian indoor titles. He broke the Chinese indoor record with 17.01 meters in 2011 and then in 2013 he broke the 20-year-old Asian indoor record set by Oleg Sakirkin of Kazakhstan with a jump of 17.16.

    “My next goal is to break the Asian record,” said Dong, referring to the outdoor continental record of 17.59 meters set by compatriot Li Yanxi in 2009.

    Last year the triple jump went through something of a renaissance as American Christian Taylor and Cuba’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo regularly dueled near — and sometimes beyond — the 18-meter line.

    But at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, the Chinese triple jumpers failed to live up to expectation on home soil as none of the host nation’s three triple jumpers, including Dong, managed to make the final.

    “I know there is still a huge gap between the world elite triple jumpers and us,” said Dong.

    Dong got married last October. Only two weeks after their wedding ceremony, Dong waved goodbye to his wife and started his winter training camp.

    “I really want to thank my wife who has being supporting me so much and sacrificing a lot,” Dong said. “Right now I can only compensate her with my performance in the field.”

    In Dong’s mind, the World Indoor Championships is not the ultimate goal of the year; he has already set his eyes on the Olympic Games in August. No Chinese athlete has ever earned an Olympic medal in the horizontal jumps, and Dong could be the man to end that drought.

    But, characteristically, Dong doesn’t want to get carried away with his ambitions.

    “Reaching the top eight is my goal for Rio.” (SD-Agencies)