HANGZHOU, China, March 20 -- China's defending world champion Gong Lijiao continued to reign in national level with her comfortable shot put victory at the 2019 Athletics National Indoor Championships Finals, while Wang Shaojie smashed the men's 1500-meter national indoor record here on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old Gong, representing Team Hebei, was the only athlete to hurl beyong 19 meters in the field, achieving her winning mark of 19.14m on her fifth attempt. She enjoyed the leading position right from the first round and three of her four valid throws were good enough to clinch the victory.
"I am satisfied with the result because my expectation today was to go beyong 19m. It is still early in the season and I am not in my best shape," said Gong, who revealed that her goal for the 2019 season is to retain the world title at the Doha World Championships and to renew her outdoor best of 20.43m set in 2016.
Song Jiayuan of Shanghai took the silver with her fifth throw of 18.23m while Bian Ka from the army team finished third at 16.99m.
The top two finishers in the men's 1500m event both break the three minutes, 45.93 seconds national indoor record that has stood since 1997. The 20-year-old Wang cut nearly four seconds off his personal best to claim the title in 3:45.36 for the Hebei team. Zong qinghua of Yunnan finished second in 3:45.82. Sichuan's Liu Xiaolong took the bronze in 3:46.11.