The Chinese Are Getting Faster

China has won three medals so far at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow – two of those have been in the 20 kilometer walk (so arguably can be ignored entirely) and the third was a bronze in the ever glamorous women's shot put. But lost in the headlines of Usain Bolt's 100 meter victory as an actual lightning bolt flashed in the sky and Yelena Isinayeva's "No, we really do hate gays" PR implosion was the performance of China's Zhang Peimeng (張培萌).

Zhang missed out on becoming the first Asian to reach the 100 meter final at the World Championships by a few thousandths of a second, but set his second personal best time of the week, running 10.00 seconds flat. The only "Asian" to have run faster than that is the Nigerian-born Samuel Francis, who became a naturalized Qatari citizen in April 2007 and ran 9.99 a few months later. Zhang may not be threatening for a major medal anytime soon, but it's significant achievement nonetheless.

Elsewhere, hopes are high for 19-year-old Xie Zhenye (谢震业) in the 200 meter, who holds the Chinese indoor and outdoor records at that distance. He won gold at both the 2010 Youth Olympic Games and the 2012 Asian Junior Championships, but this will be a huge step up in class. Heats and semis are on Friday, with the final on Saturday.

In the 110 meter hurdles, Xie Wenjun (谢文骏) did not make it out of the heats, despite some promising performances earlier in the season, but Li Jinzhe (李金哲) will line up on Friday in the final of the long jump – another event where speed is crucial. Li, 23, beat all of the last three Olympic long jump champions at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix event in May.

China's women's team is entering a squad for the 4 x 100 meter relay but does not have a single individual entry in either the 100 meter or 200 meter. Overall, China is still a long way off from turning out some worthy successors to Liu Xiang (刘翔), but given the improvements China has shown in other sports, expect to see China winning rather more medals when the World Championships come to Beijing in 2015.

Mark Dreyer is a sports journalist