The athletics events in the coming World University Games will happen from August 1 to August 6 at the Shuangliu Sports Centre in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, with 50 gold medals up for grabs, the most at a Universiade event.

As the host, China will send 90 athletes, selected from 36 universities all over the country, to participate in all 50 track and field events in Chengdu. Some are currently training in Qinhuangdao in north China's Hebei Province.

This will be the third and final Universiade for Li Junlin of Tsinghua University. A regular champion of the men's 800-meter event in different competitions, including the National Games of China, he wants to leave Chengdu with no regrets this time.

Li has been running between 18 and 20 kilometers every day in Qinhuangdao over the past three weeks. He has also had weekly specialized training sessions. By Monday, he had reached a satisfactory form.

"It's a small training cycle from June 23 until right ahead of the real competitions [at the Universiade]," Li told China Media Group (CMG). "I want to be in my best form for Chengdu."

One of Li's career highlights was in the men's 800-meter final at the National Games in 2021. He was neck and neck with other runners with only one meter left in the race and reached the finish line with a fish dive to win the gold.

"I didn't feel any pain when I touched the ground and only realized it when I took a bath at the hotel," Li said. "I didn't even think about the consequences of taking that dive, like how painful it would be, at that moment. All I wanted was to reach the tape at all costs. It has been every athlete's goal to keep surpassing ourselves and beating our limits."

Xia Yuyu of Tsinghua University will participate in the women's 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter events at the Chengdu Universiade. She has been running about 30 kilometers, longer than a half marathon, daily for practice since she went to Qinhuangdao. 

"The middle- and long-distance events are about accumulation," Xia told CMG. "It takes a quantitative change to make a qualitative change. In other words, it takes three to five years of effort for us to cut our racing time by 30, 15 or even five seconds. Even a reduction of one second means a long time of hard work."

Since Xia began competing in middle- and long-distance running events, she has grown more resilient on and off the track. 

"I don't give up easily anymore when I face difficulties," she said. "I just don't think they are a big deal. Maybe I know it's hard, but I would like to try to overcome it."

It will be Xia's final Universiade in Chengdu as well. She wants to show her best performance on the track and get more youngsters to fall in love with running.

(Cover photo: The Chinese athletics team for the World University Games trains in Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province, July 17, 2023. /China Media Group)