After a successful season during which he leveled the men's 100-meter Asian record twice and renewed the 60m Asian indoor record three times, Chinese sprinter Su Bingtian has his eyes on the 9.90-second barrier to become the fastest in the continent.
"It is really a miraculous and amazing year for me, the most memorable one in my career," the 29-year-old said. "I achieved a series of good results, and most importantly, I made such results in competing with the best sprinters in the world, which was quite a boost to my confidence."
During the indoor season, Su improved his own 60m Asian record three times en route to grabbing a landmark silver medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships with 6.42s in Birmingham, Britain in March.
Three months later, he clocked 9.91s twice in 10 days to tie the continental record set by Nigeria-born Qatari Femi Ogunode in 2016. And Su believes he can run faster.
"For now my aim is to dip under 9.90s," he said. "It would be difficult for me. But it is possible. I need to be in my best shape and also need to wait for the right time, the right place as well as the right weather conditions. This will be my primary goal in the next one or two years."
As the eldest in the national sprinting team, Su believes he can still maintain his competitiveness, at least until the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
"It will be my last Olympic Games," said Su, who took part in both 2012 and 2016 Games but failed to make it to the 100m final either.
"My son will be two years old by that time, and I hope he can watch me sprinting in the stands. It would be the first and also the last time for him to watch his father running as an Olympian."
