Zhu Jianhua

Zhu Jianhua 朱建华

Personal information
Born	29 May 1963 Shanghai, China
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Weight	70 kg (154 lb; 11 st)
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	2.39 m
Medal record Competitor for  China World Championships 1983 Helsinki High jump Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles High Jump

Zhu Jianhua (simplified Chinese: 朱建华; traditional Chinese: 朱建華; pinyin: Zhū Jiànhuá; born 29 May 1963) is a retired Chinese high jumper. His personal best of 2.39 metres is a former world record for the event.

In Helsinki 1983, Zhu became China's first man to win a medal in the IAAF World Championships. In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, he became the first male from the People's Republic of China to win an athletics medal in the history of the Olympic Games (Yang Chuan-kwang won a silver medal representing the Republic of China in the 1960 Rome Olympics).^[1] He is a two-time gold medallist at both the Asian Games and the Asian Athletics Championships.

Career

Dominating Asian high jumping in the early 1980s, Zhu won the Asian Championships in 1981, crushing the championship record by 15 centimetres. He repeated this at the 1982 Asian Games with a jump of 2.33 m, beating the previous games record by 12 cm. He retained his title in the 1986 Asian Games.

At the inaugural World Championships in 1983 and the 1984 Summer Olympics he competed against the world elite, finishing third on both occasions. Zhu's Olympic performance brought anger as well as pride back home in China – those disappointed he had not won gold, smashed the windows of his home.^[2]

On June 11, 1983 Zhu jumped 2.37 m, setting a new world record. He would go on to reach 2.38 and even 2.39 m, the latter on June 10, 1984. The world record stood until August 11, 1985, when Rudolf Povarnitsyn beat it by one centimetre. His 2.39 m jump in 1984 was the oldest Asian record among all Olympic events in athletics and lasted until 2013, when Mutaz Essa Barshim from Qatar jumped 2.40 m.

Zhu's indoor best of 2.31 m stood as the Chinese indoor record from 1986 until 2012, when Zhang Guowei jumped a centimetre higher.^[3]

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  China
1981	Asian Championships	Tokyo, Japan	1st	High jump	2.30 CR
1982	Asian Games	New Delhi, India	1st	High jump	2.34 CR
1983	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	3rd	High jump
	Asian Championships	Kuwait City, Kuwait	1st	High jump	2.31 CR
1984	Summer Olympics	Los Angeles, U.S.	3rd	High jump
1986	Asian Games	Seoul, South Korea	1st	High jump
1988	Olympic Games	Seoul, South Korea	20th	High jump

See also

• China at the World Championships in Athletics

References

1. China raises Olympic athletics medal hope. Xinhua/China Daily. Retrieved on 2013-03-17.
2. For Chinese, Liu's withdrawal caps rethinking of gold obsession. Xinhua. Retrieved on 2013-03-17.
3. Jalava, Mirko (2013-03-07). Dong Bin leads the way as indoor records tumble in Nanjing. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-03-17.

• sports-reference.com
• Zhu Jianhua profile at IAAF