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China's plan to transfer the skills of track and field athletes to winter sports ahead of Beijing 2022 is already paying off
Victories in recent international competitions have proved China's ambition of turning long jumpers into skeleton pilots is much more than just a theory.
In fact, the nation's newcomers to skeleton have successfully transferred the speed and power of track and field to the lightning-fast sliding sport more seamlessly than anyone dared imagine.
China's Yan Wengang clocked 51.27 seconds to edge local favorites Fabian Kuchler and Cedric Renner in winning the fifth leg of the Europe Cup series in Konigssee, Germany on Sunday, becoming the first Chinese to win a race on the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation's secondary circuit.
Last month in Whistler, Canada, Yan's teammate Geng Wenqiang got China's season off to a flying start by winning the first race of the North American Cup, an entry-level IBSF series restricted to competitors outside the world's top 15.
To put things in perspective, neither Yan nor Geng had...