Yan throws down the gauntlet

"Now that I've broken the 65m mark this year, my target will be cracking 66m next year and building toward the 2027 world championships at home," Yan said in the mixed zone after Sunday's final.

"I didn't manage to do my best today, after messing up with my pace in the next few attempts following the first throw.

"I know I can do better, and I am looking forward to proving it in 2027."

Yan's season peaked early last month at the national championships in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, where, despite carrying a foot injury, she produced a personal best of 65.89m in her final attempt to secure a second straight senior national title while producing the world's third-best result so far this year.

The throw could've won her gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, surpassing the winning distance of Japan's Haruka Kitaguchi by nine centimeters, although Yan did it with her right foot sprained from her third attempt.

She missed the Paris Games due to the same age limitations, while her coach Lu Xiurong understands patience is required for Yan's long-term development.

"We do have regrets. If she were able to compete in Paris last year, it would be hard to predict the champion," Lu told Xinhua after the national meet.

"On the other hand, we knew that it might be a little premature to let such a young girl participate on the Olympic stage, so we should keep training, step by step, to wait for our chance."

Also shining at the Beijing meet on Sunday was China's veteran sprinter Xie Zhenye, who clocked a season best 10.21 seconds to finish fourth in the men's 100m final, which was won by Oman's Ali Al-Balushi in 10.09.

Xie, a fourtime Olympian and a member of China's silver-winning 4x100m relay team at the 2015 worlds, said his time at the continental meet has built his confidence for what will be his sixth world championships.

"To run a time like I did tonight, despite fatigue from a high-intensity training program, is a real confidence boost for me going to Tokyo," said the 32-year-old, who holds the Asian 200m record of 19.88 achieved in London in July 2019.

Xie is among 73 Chinese athletes that have qualified for the Tokyo worlds, and will race side-by-side with the country's next generation of sprinters, such as 23-year-old Deng Xinrui, China's first 100m world championships racer born after 2000.