Ten Chinese stars missing at Hangzhou Asian Games

BEIJING, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- As athletes shape up for their final preparations ahead of the 19th Asian Games, several high-profile names will be absent due to various reasons. Following are 10 Chinese star athletes who didn't make the roster for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Yang Qian (Shooting)

Olympic debutant Yang shot down the first gold of Tokyo 2020 in women's 10m air rifle, before becoming the first-ever Chinese shooter to take two golds from one Olympics by winning a 10m air rifle mixed team event with teammate Yang Haoran.

But since the Paris Olympic cycle started, Yang has not been able to reach her best form, given the fact that China's air rifle team has always been super competitive with young talents emerging one after another. Failing to stay at the forefront of the team, 23-year-old Yang was left out of last year's World Championships roster as well as the Asian Games.

Su Bingtian (Athletics)

Star sprinter Su announced his withdrawal from the 2023 season due to "physical reasons" in June. The 34-year-old won the men's 60m with 6.59 seconds on his season debut at the World Athletics Indoor Tour 2023 Gothenburg Games in February but did not compete any event after that.

Su was the first Chinese to run 100m in under 10 seconds in 2015. With a personal best of 9.83 seconds in the 100m event, he is the fifth fastest man all-time in the category at the Olympics.

Guo Dan (Roller Skating)

As one of the best roller skaters in the world, Guo completed a grand slam of the roller skating World Championships, World Cup and World Games. In 2015, Guo decided to add speed skating to her skillset and started to compete on the wheels and the blades at the same time.

Guo made the speed skating national team the next year and took a silver in the women's mass start at the ISU Speed Skating World Cup in 2017, as well as a roller skating silver at the Jakarta Asian Games. However, with very limited berths at the Hangzhou Games, Guo failed to make the list.

Liu Hong (Athletics)

With her 20km victories at the Spanish leg of the 2015 IAAF Race Walking Challenge in La Coruna, the 2015 World Championships in Beijing and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Liu completed a grand slam of major race walking titles and retired after the Rio Games. Liu made a stunning comeback in 2019, as she triumphed the World Championships again and broke the 50km world record.

With two Asian Games gold medals from 2006 and 2010 in hand, the 36-year-old only made the substitute list for the Hangzhou Games after finishing 17th at the worlds in August.

Zhu Ting (Volleyball)

After winning the CEV Volleyball Cup and taking third place in the Italian Serie A1 women's volleyball league with Scandicci in the 2022-2023 season, Zhu admitted that she needs more time to recover from a wrist injury and return to the national team.

The star spiker announced in August that she will be traveling to Spain soon to meet with her doctor and rehabilitator to start a new rehab cycle.

Zhu was the leading attacker as China's women took gold medals at the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Zhou Qi (Basketball)

Starting center Zhou Qi left the court with a back injury in China's defeat to the Philippines at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup journey in early September, and will be missing the Asian Games along with captain Zhou Peng due to injury.

As China's men's team failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics after finishing 29th at the World Cup, they will be pinning their hopes on the Asian Games to boost their morale. President of the Chinese Basketball Association, Yao Ming, has vowed to take all four basketball gold medals in Hangzhou.

Lu Yunxiu (Sailing)

Lu claimed the women's windsurfing RS:X gold at the Tokyo Olympics, becoming China's third Olympic gold medalist in sailing. At the Paris Olympics, however, iQFOiL will replace RS:X as the new windsurfing class, meaning that Lu had to start everything from zero, with adjustments in training methods, technical details and a lot more.

"It has been a difficult process, but I will keep trying, keep working hard and hope to achieve a breakthrough," said the 27-year-old.

Ou Yushan (Gymnastics)

The Chinese Gymnastics Association announced respective rosters for the Hangzhou Asian Games and Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, as the two competitions will be held at a similar time. Since the women's team still has to fight for Paris Olympic berths at the worlds, Ou, as one of the better-performing athletes in the trial, will head to Antwerp instead of Hangzhou.

The 19-year-old collected four gold medals in women's all-around, balance beam, floor exercise and team event at the Chengdu Universiade.

Lyu Xiaojun (Weightlifting)

Olympic champion Lyu was provisionally suspended last December after a positive result of peptide hormone erythropoietin (EPO) from his out-of-competition testing in October and no further progress has been announced.

Lyu has been crowned world champion five times and won the London 2012 men's 77kg and Tokyo 2020 men's 81kg golds. He has also been confirmed by the International Weightlifting Federation as the Rio 2016 men's 77kg winner since Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan was stripped of the gold due to a doping violation.

Tang Jiali (Football)

Tang played a vital role in China's aggregated win against South Korea in the Olympic qualification playoffs. She was also among the 10 candidates for the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Best Women's Player in 2020.

A fringe player at this year's World Cup, Tang only came on as a substitute in the 88th minute in China's 1-0 win over Haiti. After missing out on the Asian Games roster, the 28-year-old announced that she has joined Spanish club Levante Las Planas on loan, her third overseas spell after Tottenham Hotspur in 2021 and Madrid CFF in 2022.