14-year-old girl becomes China's basketball hopeful

BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A video of a 2.26-meter-tall girl dominating China's National U15 Women's Basketball Championship final has gone viral on the internet, reminding many in China of basketball legend Yao Ming.

The girl in the video, Zhang Ziyu, who is significantly taller than everyone else on the court, met no challenges when she pocketed 42 points, 25 rebounds and six blocks in the final to help her team claim the title.

Zhang was born in May 2007 in Shandong Province, to parents who were former professional basketball athletes. Zhang's father is 2.13 meters tall while her mother Yu Ying, who stands over 1.9m tall, earned several national team call-ups.

By the time she entered elementary school, Zhang was already 1.6 meters tall. Zhang grew 10cm every year until she stood at 2.11m when she graduated from elementary school, making her stand out among her classmates.

In 2019, Zhang enrolled at Tsinghua University Middle School, famous for its basketball team, as a student athlete, with many hoping that she can one day anchor China's women's basketball team and write her own story as "the female Yao Ming."