TIANJIN, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Newly crown London worlds champion Yang Jiayu collected one more heavyweight title in a successful year when the debutante lifted the women's 20km race walk title at the National Games of China here on Sunday.
The 21-year old representing the People's Liberation Army clocked one hour, 28 minutes and 29 seconds to edge London Olympic silver medalist Qieyang Shijie to the second place in 1:28:33.
Less than a month ago, Yang took a surprising win with a personal best of 1:26:18 at London World Championships to lift her first major title.
"A lot of my confidence today come from the gold medal I won at the world championships," said Yang.
"However, when I walk off the podium, I need to start afresh. My weakness is my comparatively thin physique so I will train to improve it," she said.
Qieyang Shijie, China's first Tibetan Olympic medalist, crossed the line 4 seconds behind and the bronze went to Tianjin's Li Leilei with a time of 1:34:37.
Fate played a cruel joke on Beijing world silver medalist Lyu Xiuzhi again when she was disqualified just 5km from the end, failing to defend her National Games title. Lyu, also winning a bronze at last year's Rio Olympics, was disqualified meters from the finish line in London.
"Short of physical strength led to poor skill display. She also has some skill problems to solve," said Lyu's coach Zhang Fuxin.
Later in the men's 20km race walk, another up-and-coming star Wang Kaihua of Guangdong claimed the title in 1:20:52.
Wang admitted that the win took a lot of pressure off him after the title favorite just placed seventh at the London worlds where Eider Arevalo of Colombia claimed the world title in 1:18:53.
"I had wanted to prove with a convincing win at the National Games that it was not a coincidence I created a world lead time this year," said the 23-year old who walked to a world lead time of 1:17:54 in March.
Wang suffered from kidney stones a few years ago which left him on the edge of retirement and missing the last National Games in Shenyang, Liaoning. Now fully recovered, Wang said he had more reason to keep on walking.
"There were times when I really wanted to call it quit in the past 10 years. But I have held on because I really like race walking, and want to try again," said Wang
"Today's gold medal is a reward for my efforts," he said.
Bian Tongda of Shandong nailed the silver in 1:21:01. Chen Rui of Chongqing clocked 1:21:59 to get the bronze. London Olympic champion Chen Ding ranked fifth.
