Yan Haibin and Deng Xinrui  Photo: Screenshot from website

In a remarkable feat at the just-concluded 21st national university student athletics championships, two students from Jinan University's School of Physical Education broke the previous record set by Chinese iconic sprinter Su Bingtian, according to a post from the university's official WeChat account.

The students, Yan Haibin and Deng Xinrui, qualified for the men's 100-meter final finals by clocking times of 10.24 and 10.25 seconds, respectively, breaking the previous meet record of 10.28 seconds set by Su back in 2014.

At the event, the pair eventually secured the first and second positions in the finals with times of 10.40 seconds and 10.49 seconds, respectively.

According to the post, Deng battled acute gastroenteritis before the competition and still managed to achieve a record-breaking performance in the preliminary rounds. Yan and others who had recently participated in the Chengdu Universiade managed to make a swift transition to the new competition.

The two had been training under the guidance of Su at the Su Bingtian Center for Speed Research and Training, an institution established at Jinan University in 2021, which aims to provide high-tech services and utilizes the talent pool for national team training for the Olympics and Asian Games.

Online reactions to this accomplishment have been positive, with some netizens noting that the students' success proves the effectiveness of Su's training methodologies. 

Su, a prominent figure in Chinese sprinting, was appointed as an associate professor at Jinan University in April 2018, where he received his bachelor's and master's degree.

The 34-year-old Su, with a personal best of 9.83 seconds in the 100m event, is the all-time fifth fastest man in the category at the Olympics, according to the Xinhua News Agency. He became the first Asian-born sprinter to achieve a sub-10 second time in 2015 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.