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World Athletics
SportChina

Su Bingtian can go even faster – he’s ‘taking a knife to a gunfight’ without custom-made shoes, says coach

China sprint star can finish among top five of all time, according to Randy Huntington, with 9.91 national record remarkable given lack of specialist footwear

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China sprint star Su Bingtian is capable of matching the best, says his coach. Photo: Handout
Sam Agars

He ran the fifth fastest 100 metres of the year while still waiting for his custom Nike running shoes to be made, but Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian isn’t even close to finished, according to coach Randy Huntington.

Su surged to victory at the Meeting de Madrid in 9.91 seconds on the weekend – reclaiming the national record he had lost to Xie Zhenye just three days earlier – and his American coach is convinced he can trim plenty more off his personal best.

“His best race, if he can hit all cylinders, would probably be just under 9.8, but those have got to be perfect things and they don’t happen very often,” Huntington said.

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“There is a lot of upside to his ability. His potential is around 9.78. That would put him close to top five of all time.

“He is ready to run faster. He still doesn’t have his custom shoes from Nike, which they are currently making. I told him, ‘you are taking a knife to a gunfight’.

“The rest of these guys are wearing custom shoes and Su is a very powerful guy and he needs a shoe that is a whole lot stiffer than what he is running in.”

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