Chinese men set Asian record on way to worlds final after nearly 30 years

Chinese male runners Saturday broke into the world championships 4x100m relay final after 28 year and set an Asian record.

In the 4x100m heats, the Chinese relay team, consisting of Su Bingtian, Zhang Peimeng, Xie Zhenye and Mo Youxue, finished fourth in 37.92 seconds, shaving 0.07 off their previous Asian best set in the Asian Games last year, to qualify for the world championships final for the first time.

Defending champion Jamaica was first in the heats in 37.41 while France, the United States, Antigua &Barbuda, Canada, Britain and Germany entered this evening's final.

In 2013 Moscow world championships, China finished a distant 16th in the heats. Last time a Chinese team appeared in the final was in 1987 in Rome, Italy when they finished eighth in 39.93 and the United States took gold in 37.90.

"The atmosphere here in the stadium was great today and that helped us to perfom as well as we did," said Zhang who ran the 4th leg.

Su, who became the first Chinese to run the blue-ribbon 100m final at the world championships on Sunday, believed they could do even better in the final.

"I think our team performed overall was good but there is still room for improvement. So hopefully in the final we can give a better performance and it should be possible to be stronger in the evening," said the 26-year-old. Endi