The World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25 will be held from March 21st to 23rd. More than 500 athletes from over 120 countries and regions will compete in 13 events for each gender.
On the 14th, the Chinese Athletics Team announced a list of 35 participants for 22 events, including core forces such as Olympic champion Gong Lijiao and sprinter Xie Zhenye, as well as new generation athletes such as Li Chenyang and Liu Junxi. The lineup combines strength and potential, with a variety of highlights.
Famous athletes strive for medals to defend the honor of the home field
In the 2025 National Indoor Athletics Grand Prix (4th stop) and World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25 Test Event (referred to as the “Test Event”) held in February this year, Olympic champion and female shot put athlete Gong Lijiao won the championship with an absolute advantage by throwing 19.04 meters, demonstrating a stable competitive edge. After the game, she expressed her desire to win a medal or even a gold medal on home turf, adding another World Series honor to her career.
In the men's 60m final of the recent National Indoor Athletics Championships, 31-year-old Xie Zhenye won the championship with a personal season best time of 6.60 seconds. The holder of the Asian 200-meter record once ranked fourth with a personal best of 6.52 seconds in the men's 60m final at the 2018 World Indoor Athletics Championships held in Birmingham, UK. In this competition on the home field, he will directly face the challenges from international top athletes and strive to break his personal best record.
Zhu Yaming, the silver medalist of the men's triple jump at the Tokyo Olympics, will also compete in the men's triple jump event this time. In the third leg of the 2025 National Indoor Athletics Grand Prix, he set a new Asian seasonal result with a mark of 17.31 meters and won the championship. In this competition, he will once again engage in a peak showdown with his long-time rival Hugues Fabrice Zango, who is the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Olympics and the world record holder.
In addition, women's 60-meter hurdles champion Wu Yanni, who successfully achieved a “three-peat” in indoor athletics this season, will also compete for medals. The greater the pressure, the more she has to prove herself. The expectations of the home audience and the competition with international elites may become an opportunity for her to break through the bottleneck.
Rising stars challenge the world stage
In the list of participants announced this time, the new generation of “post-00s” athletics players led by Li Chenyang, Liu Junxi, and Chen Yujie will participate in 15 events, which is worth looking forward to. This competition will also become a touchstone for young Chinese athletes.
21-year-old Li Chenyang broke the national record for men's pole vault with a result of 5.85 meters in February this year, becoming a new benchmark in the domestic event. In this competition, he will directly face the “downgrade blow” from Swedish star Armand Duplandis (world record holder, 6.27 meters). Encouraged by the world's top players, whether Li Chenyang, who is competing at home field, can make breakthroughs again is also one of the highlights of this event.
Liu Junxi, a Jiangsu athlete born in 2003, broke his personal best in the test event with a time of 7.47 seconds, becoming the Chinese hurdler closest to Liu Xiang's record. This result also made him the seventh best hurdler in Asia (the top six were all created by Liu Xiang). With his strong and explosive power and precise rhythm among hurdles, he is regarded as the new benchmark of Chinese hurdles. In this competition, he will join forces with his teammate Qin Weibo to challenge American hurdler superstar Grant Holloway, who is the world record holder of the men's 60-meter hurdles.
In terms of the 60-meter sprint, 17-year-old Chen Yujie (with a qualifying result of 7.26 seconds) will, under the leadership of her senior Liang Xiaojing (with a qualifying result of 7.19 seconds), challenge the renowned Jamaican athlete, Natasha Morrison, who is an Olympic 4x100-meter relay champion and a double world champion at the World Championships. Deng Xinrui, a rising star in men's sprinting, achieved a time of 6.57 seconds in the first leg of this year's National Indoor Grand Prix, becoming the only athlete who ran within 6.60 seconds this season. He will join hands with Xie Zhenye to compete for the medal.
In terms of mid-range running, Liu Dezhu, the national record holder for men's 800-meter outdoor race, and Ailixier Wumaier, the national record holder for men's 800-meter indoor race, will participate in the men's 1500-meter and 800-meter races, respectively.
The stage of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25 is not only a battlefield for veterans such as Gong Lijiao and Xie Zhenye to defend their honors, but also a starting point for newcomers such as Li Chenyang and Liu Junxi to move towards the rank of world-class athletes. This indoor athletics event, which is being held in China for the first time, not only brings a historic breakthrough for Chinese athletics, but also witnesses the passing of torch between the old and new generations on the field.
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