Easy win for local hero Li Jinzhe at IAAF World Challenge Beijing

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Three days after wining the men's long jump title at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Shanghai, Li Jinzhe of China collected another victory with a mark of 8.31 meters at the 2013 IAAF World Challenge here on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old Li crushed his personal best with a world leading 8.34m winning mark in Shanghai last Saturday, beating the past three Olympic champions - Dwight Phillips, 2004; Irving Saladino, 2008; and Greg Rutherford, London 2012 to claim the title.

This time Li was also facing a strong field including Panama's Beijing Olympic champion Saladino and three of the last four IAAF World Indoor Championships gold medallists: Ghana's Ignisious Gaisah, South Africa's Godfrey Mokoena and Australia's Fabrice Lapierre, who won their titles in 2006, 2008 and 2010 respectively.

Li only needed his first jump of 8.31m to seal the title, 0.18m ahead of second placed Gaisah. Ngonidzashe Makusha of Zimbabwe finished third in 8.04.

The in-form Beijing native could have charged for a new personal best in the first major competition in his home city. But he scratched his arm to the edge of the pit during his third jump and had to quit the competition for first aid.

None of the other jumpers managed to beat Li's 8.31m mark in the remaining of the event and Li, having only being a promising teenager at the time of the 2008 Olympic Games and not making the Chinese team on that occasion, finally tasted the feeling of winning in the Bird Nest. Enditem

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