(Beijing, May 23) The "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 China Athletics Open entered its second day at the National Stadium. There was no surprise in the 10 events, including the high-level women's shot put and hammer throw where all veteran throwers eased into the finals.

The women's shot put attracted such big stars as world champion Valerie Vili of New Zealand and Chinese veterans Li Meiju, Li Ling and Gong Lijiao. In the qualifying round, they displayed great strength by reaching the 17.50-meter qualification mark with a single attempt.

In the qualifying round of the women's hammer throw, Zhang Wenxiu, bronze medalist at last year's world championships, qualified with a throw of 66.84 meters for the final clash against Liu Yinghui, Wang Zheng and Hao Shuai, who had all managed over 63 meters. However, Zhang's leading position seemed unshakable.

The results of the women's 400m semifinals suggested an intense competition between China's Chen Lin and Tanno Asami of Japan and others for the gold.

The men's 400m semifinals saw a Japanese runner and two Australian runners ranking the top three. Following them, China's Jiang Bo was also in good form. The men's 400m final, therefore, will probably be the most "internationalized" one among all events contested at the current tournament.

In the first round of the women's 3000m steeplechase, five runners finished within 10 minutes and 20 seconds. All the four Chinese runners that had previously reached Olympic A standard successfully advanced to the next round.

In the men's 3000m steeplechase first round, Chinese veteran Lin Xiangqian cruised into the final with a time of 8:58.71 to become the first to break the 9-minute barrier. Many Chinese runners expected to reach Olympic B standard, but they will have to be 30 seconds faster in the final tomorrow evening.

In the men's high jump preliminaries, Japan's Naoyuki Daigo placed first by clearing 2.15m, while Chinese veteran Huang Haiqiang ranked bottom among all the qualifiers with 2.10m. It seemed that all of them had purposely reserved their strength for the final contention.

In the men's triple jump, China's title favorite Li Yanxi led the qualification round with a jump of 16.58m, followed by countrymen Gu Junjie and Jia Yingli. Li has not yet reached Olympic A standard, but two other Chinese jumpers have already qualified for the Olympic Games.

In the men's 400m hurdles preliminary round, Narisako Kenji of Japan, last year's world No. 9, claimed a comfortable win with 49.72, followed by Tristan Thomas and Brendan Cole, both of Australia, and Zhang Shibao of China. All of them achieved a mark within 51 seconds.

In the long jump of the women's heptathlon, China's Liu Haili further extended her lead. As the only jumper with a result of over 6 meters, she has collected a total of 4,413 points after five events.

The 12 finals to be staged this evening will include the men's and women's 100m. In the meantime, Chinese flying man Liu Xiang will appear again in the men's 110m hurdles semifinals.