Zhu Jianhua

Zhu Jianhua (; born 29 May 1963) is a retired Chinese high jumper.

In Helskinki 1983, he became China's first ever male athlete to win a medal in the history of the IAAF World Championships and, in Los Angeles 1984, became China's first ever male athlete to win a medal in the history of the Olympic Games.

In addition to Yang Chuan-kwang representing the Republic of China in the 1960 Rome Olympics, Zhu Jianhua and Liu Xiang are still the only two Chinese male track and field athletes to win medals in the Olympic Games. Liu won the 110 m hurdles gold in Athens 2004.

Career

Dominating Asian high jump in the early 1980s, he won the Asian Championships in 1981, crushing the championship record (CR) by 15 centimetres. He repeated this at the 1982 Asian Games with a jump of 2.33 m, beating the previous CR by 12 cm. He retained his title in the 1986 Asian Games. His 1982 jump is an Asian Games record , and no other athlete has jumped over 2.27 in the Games.

At the inaugural World Championships in 1983 and the 1984 Summer Olympics he competed against the world elite, finishing third on both occasions.

On June 11, 1983 Jianhua jumped 2.37 metres, setting a new world record. He would go on to reach 2.38 and even 2.39 metres, the latter on June 10, 1984. The world record stood until August 11, 1985, when Rudolf Povarnitsyn beat it by one centimeter. His 2.39 jump in 1984 is the oldest Asian Record among all Olympic events in athletics. See List of Asian records in......
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