TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s “fastest man” Yang Chun-Han (楊俊瀚) set a new indoor 200 meter sprint national record on Sunday—but his time unfortunately will not count.
CNA reports Yang, who holds the 100 meter and 200 meter national records, was invited Sunday to compete in several U.S. JDL DMR indoor track and field events, where he not only swept the 60 meter and 200 meter sprints, but also beat his own 200 meter record of 21.82 seconds by 0.16 seconds.
The athlete traveled to the U.S. for training just before the turn of the new year, and used time in-between events to work on improving his record times. Yang took gold in the competition 60 meter sprint with a time of 6.73 seconds.
Unfortunately, although Yang’s 200 meter result of 21.66 seconds beat the national indoor track and field 200 meter world record of 21.82, set by Chen Tian-wen (陳天文) in 1999, it was not recognized by the Chinese Taipei Athletics Association. Secretary-General of the association Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) said it is because the track on which he achieved the record does not meet international standards.
Cheng explained the curve of an indoor 200 meter track is smaller than that of an outdoor one and must have an incline, as the centrifugal force could otherwise easily throw a runner off the track and cause serious injuries. “The 200 meter track of this indoor competition arena has no incline, so it does not meet the standards,” he said.