PARIS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- When 28-year-old world record holder Yang Jiayu confidently walked past the Eiffel Tower and crossed the Jena Bridge, she wore a big smiled passing the finish line to finally realize her dream of becoming an Olympic champion - a goal she had pursued for eight years.

"I've waited eight years for this gold medal," Yang said after winning the women's 20km race walk in Paris on Thursday. "In 2016, I watched the Olympics as a substitute in Rio. From that moment, a seed was planted in my heart. I wanted to compete in the Olympics and fight for medals." She competed at the Tokyo Games and finished 12th.

Thursday marked the first day of athletics at the Paris Olympics. In the women's 20km race walk, Yang Jiayu secured China's first track and field gold medal at these Games with a personal season-best time of one hour, 25 minutes, and 54 seconds. This victory also marked China's return to Olympic gold in race walking after eight years.

The race faced a half-hour delay due to thunderstorms in Paris. Once the sky cleared, the temperature quickly rose under the scorching sun, creating challenging conditions of high heat and humidity for the athletes.

Undeterred by the weather, Yang adopted a bold and physically demanding strategy. After the 5km mark, she took the lead, steadily increasing her advantage to as much as 45 seconds ahead of the second group. At the 13km mark, world champion Maria Perez of Spain began to close the gap, narrowing it to 15 seconds. Yang, however, withstood the pressure and increased her speed in the final stages to maintain her lead until the end.

"Today's race was about showcasing my confidence and performing at my best," she said. "From start to finish, I maintained my own pace with assurance."

Yang revealed that the original plan was not to lead from the start but to follow the pack for the first 10km before accelerating. "Yesterday, my coach made a last-minute adjustment. He believed that since I had the capability, I should let go and perform according to my own condition. So today's strategy was improvised on the spot."

Yang's performance underscores her strong athleticism and innate talent, evident from a young age. She made her debut at the 2017 London World Championships, winning the women's 20km race walk by a one-second margin over Mexico's Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez, the Rio Olympic silver medalist, and significantly improving her personal best by 17 seconds.

In subsequent competitions, including the 2017 National Games of China and the 2018 Asian Games, Yang twice defeated her senior, Qieyang Shijie, the Chinese gold medalist at the London Olympics, to win gold. As a representative of the new generation, Yang was seen as continuing China's dominance in women's race walking on the global stage.

However, her eagerness to win led to a setback at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, where she was disqualified in the final stages of the women's 20km race walk due to technical violations.

Following this setback, Yang faced a career bottleneck. Her performance in international events became inconsistent, exposing issues with her endurance and technique. At the Tokyo Olympics, she was penalized two minutes during the final sprint, putting her out of medal contention.

"Every year, there were gains and regrets. I kept summarizing my failures and trying to improve," Yang said.

To overcome her "bottleneck," Yang made continuous adjustments and tried to change. She took a break from competitions in 2022 and focused on refining her technique during subsequent winter training to avoid red cards in the final stages of races.

At last year's World Championships in Budapest, Yang was confident and hoped for a comeback. However, due to high temperatures during the race, she faltered again, finishing 12th. She emphasized, "The most important goal is still the Paris Olympics. I have one more year to prepare."

From the 2023 winter training onwards, Yang trained with Italian coach Patrizio Antonio Parcesepe, adopting a different training regime to enhance her endurance and adapt to hot weather conditions in Italy.

"I learned a lot from Coach Patrizio. This preparation was the most systematic and the best training I've ever had," Yang said.

In the final stages of the Paris race, Maria Perez of Spain launched a strong pursuit, closing the gap to 15 seconds at one point.

"In previous races, I had several regrets due to violations in the final stages. Anything could happen until the last moment, so I was nervous when Perez was closing in," Yang said. "But my coach kept encouraging me to relax, trust myself, and smile. So I smiled and kept it up until the end."

Yang Jiayu will next compete in the marathon race walk mixed relay with her teammates at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on August 7th. Enditem

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