Shanghai, Apr 6:
China’s world silver-medallist high jumper Zhang Guowei, renowned for his flamboyant twerking celebrations, has stunned fans by announcing his retirement aged 28.
The colourful Zhang won silver at the Beijing 2015 World Championships and also competed at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics.
“I’m sorry, I really can’t jump anymore, I’ve decided to retire,” Zhang told his 3.4 million followers on the Twitter-like Weibo on Sunday.
However, his form and fitness tailed off after his 2015 triumph and his season’s best performance of 2.28m, set in Italy’s Siena in February, was some way short of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifying standard of 2.33m.
The Tokyo Games were last week moved to the summer of 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. (PTI)
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