With an impressive campaign collectively celebrated on home soil, China's top track and field talent has stolen the show from the world's best at the Diamond League season opener in Xiamen.
No new world records, but the Diamond League's first meet of the year in East China's Fujian province has offered plenty to cheer, especially for local fans, as the host's squad racked up five medals, including one gold, on Saturday, with its blend of youth and experience tested against a strong international field.
The biggest surprise, or perhaps the most underrated performer, was young Chinese prospect Zhang Mingkun, who leaped to gold in the men's long jump. The 24-year-old sailed out to 8.18 meters on his fifth attempt to steal the win from the leader of the first four rounds, Liam Adcock of Australia, to bag his first medal of the league series at Xiamen's Egret Stadium.
His winning jump on Saturday also marked Zhang's personal best, only six centimeters shy of his overall PB of 8.24m, achieved at an indoor meet in Pombal, Portugal, in February.
Adcock — with 8.15m on his third jump — had to settle for silver, while American jumper Marquis Dendy, winner of last year's series leg in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, finished third with 8.10m.
Zhang's unexpected rise to the top step of the podium has helped maintain China's competitiveness in the men's event, after 2022 world championships winner Wang Jianan struggled to reclaim his prime form.
"It was my first time in Xiamen, and to compete in such a high-level event. I didn't jump well initially, but, luckily, I found my rhythm on the fifth attempt," said Zhang, who finished 7th at his Olympic debut in Paris last summer.
"I didn't disappoint the fans, at the end of the day. I will just keep working hard," said the Hunan province native.
In men's triple jump, Chinese veteran Zhu Yaming came up short of delivering another elite-level result, following his 17.33m silver-winning leap at the Nanjing indoor worlds last month, as he produced a subpar performance by his standards, recording 17.03m to finish second after Jamaican winner Jordan Scott's PB of 17.27m.
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Zhu, a silver medalist at Tokyo 2020, wasn't upset, though.
"It was a result that was just okay, just passed the lowest requirement of myself," said the 31-year-old, who's registered results of 17.30mplus nine times, with his 17.57m podium finish in Tokyo still his PB.
"I feel I had a solid preparation from Nanjing to Xiamen, yet the result here showed we didn't do as well as we thought in training, meaning I still have room to improve."
On an electrifying night, cheered on by a passionate home crowd, the host squad also collected three bronze medals.
In men's 110m hurdles, Liu Junxi delivered a PB of 13.24 seconds to grab one of them, women's shot put veteran Gong Lijiao's 19.62m effort delivered her a podium finish, and a 61.62m throw in women's javelin by youngster Su Lingdan saw her pocket her first career Diamond League medal.
Off the podium, without a medal, China's teen prodigy Chen Yujie still made her presence felt on her Diamond League debut, as the 16-year-old sprinted to fourth place in women's 200m with a PB and new Asian youth record of 22.99s.
She missed out on the podium by a mere 0.02s in a race featuring a star-studded field that included Jamaica's two-time 200m world champion Shericka Jackson and two-time Olympic medalist Jenna Prandini of the United States.
"Oh my gosh, I was so excited," said an emotional Chen, who came out flying in the far left first lane in the final to wow the Xiamen crowd.
"There were loads of Olympic and world champions in this race; athletes that I've looked up to. To be able to compete with them, and finish with such a good result, I feel all my hard work in training is paying off."
Leading a glittering cast of international winners in Xiamen was Norway's three-time 400m world champion hurdler Karsten Warholm, who broke his own world best in the newly-added 300m discipline on the Diamond series, showing no signs of rust since his last official meet at the Poland leg in August.
Warholm powered around three-quarters of the track, gliding over the barriers to win by almost a second ahead of runner-up Matheus Lima in 33.05s, shaving 0.21s on the previous world best he set in Oslo in 2021.
The time in Xiamen was considered an unofficial world record as the 300m, which is not included in the Olympics, is still not yet a world record event, despite World Athletics announcing recently that the discipline would become an official world record event "in due course".
"I was a little bit surprised by how easy my legs were feeling off the last bend," said Warholm. "Of course, you feel it a little bit in the end, but I managed to really push in the last 45 meters. This shows that the speed is there and the speed over the hurdles is there."
Warholm's run was one of eight meeting records established in Xiamen.
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Earlier in the night, Kenyan female distance star Faith Kipyegon narrowly missed out on the 1,000m world record after she clocked 2:29.21, falling just 0.23s short of becoming the fastest woman over a kilometer.
"It was a very good start to my season," said Kipyegon.
As arguably the most popular foreign star in Xiamen, Sweden's pole vault superstar Armand Duplantis failed to deliver his best, yet still defended his title at the meet by clearing a height of 5.92m after three jumps.
"It was not the easiest day. We had a little bit of trouble with the wind, but overall it was a great fun," said the 25-year-old, who set a world record of 6.24m (that he has since exceeded) at the same event last year.
