Wu Yanni (; born 28 July 1997) is a Chinese

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete. She is a multiple time Chinese national champion in the

100 metres hurdles The 100 metres hurdles, or 100-meter hurdles, is a track and field event run mainly by women (the male counterpart is the 110 metres hurdles). For the race, ten hurdles of a height of are placed along a straight course of . The first hurdle is ...

Early life

Wu was born in

Zigong Zigong ( zh, s=自贡 , ), formed by the merger of the two former towns of Ziliujing (Tzuliuching, literally "self-flow well") and Gongjing (Kungching, literally "offering well"), is a prefecture-level city in Sichuan, Southwestern China. Demo ...

, a city in southern

Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...

, she started her hurdling career in

Neijiang Neijiang ( zh, s=内江 , t=內江; Sichuanese Pinyin: Nui4jiang1; Sichuanese Mandarin, Sichuanese pronunciation: ; zh, p=Nèijiāng , w=Nei-chiang) is a prefecture-level city in the southeast of Sichuan province, People's Republic of China. It ...

before moving to study at Beijing Sports University.

Career

On 15 September 2016, while representing Sichuan team in the women's 100 m hurdles at the 2016 National Track and Field Championships, she won third place in 13.58 seconds. On 4 September, at the 13th National Games held in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, she won third place in 13.36 seconds. She won the Chinese national title in the

in 2023. She qualified for the final of the

2023 Asian Athletics Championships The 2023 Asian Athletics Championships was the 25th edition of the Asian Athletics Championships. It was held from 12 to 16 July 2023 in Bangkok, Thailand. It was the first time that Thailand hosted this event since 1973. Held at the Supachalasai ...

, held in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

, but was disqualified in the final due to a false start. Yanni won silver in the 100m women’s hurdles in the

World University Games The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

in August 2023, running a personal best time in the semi finals of 12.85 seconds, before breaking it again later that day in the final, where she clocked a time of 12.76 seconds. During the women's 100-meter hurdles final of track and field at the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

, Wu was disqualified for her

false start In sports, a false start is a disallowed start, usually due to a movement by a participant before (or in some cases after) being signaled or otherwise permitted by the rules to start. Depending on the sport and the event, a false start can resu ...

. She was selected for the

2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships The 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships was the 19th edition of the international indoor track and field competition, organised by the World Athletics. The event was held between 1–3 March at the Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velod ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

to compete in the women's 60 metres hurdles, where she ran a personal best time of 8.12 seconds. She won the 100m hurdles at the World Continental Tour Gold event in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

on 19 May 2024. She set a new personal best of 12.74 seconds in the 100m hurdles to win the

Chinese Athletics Championships The Chinese Athletics Championships ( zh, 全国田径锦标赛) is an annual track and field competition which serves as the national championship for the People's Republic of China. It is organised by Chinese Athletic Association, China's nation ...

in June 2024. She was named in the Chinese team for the

2024 Paris Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. At the Olympics, Wu ranked sixth in her group with a time of 12.97 seconds in the preliminaries and fourth in her group with a time of 12.98 seconds in the repechange round, but still created the best result for a Chinese athlete in the women's 100m hurdles. She qualified for the semi-finals of the 60 metres hurdles at the

2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships The 20th World Athletics Indoor Championships were held from 21 to 23 March 2025 in Nanjing, People's Republic of China, at the newly built Nanjing's Cube gymnasium in the Nanjing Youth Olympic Sports Park. Nanjing was originally due to host the ...

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

, where she ran a national record time of 8.01 seconds, missing a place in the final in front of her home crowd by 0.01 of a second. She finished seventh in the 100m hurdles at the

2025 Xiamen Diamond League The 2025 Xiamen Diamond League was an outdoor track and field meeting in Xiamen, China. Held on 26 April at Xiamen Egret Stadium, it was the opening leg of the 2025 Diamond League – the highest level international track and field circuit. Di ...

event in China, in April 2025. The following week, she ran a seasons best 12.96 seconds at the

2025 Shanghai Diamond League The 2025 Shanghai Diamond League was an outdoor track and field meeting in Shaoxing Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. Located on the south bank of the Qianta ...

event in China on 3 May 2025. That month, she won the bronze medal in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2025 Asian Athletics Championships.

Personal life

She has been nicknamed “China’s goddess of track and field” and attracted social media attention due to her outgoing personality and body tattoos, which she has said are a symbol of her self confidence.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yanni, Wu Living people 1997 births Chinese female hurdlers Chinese female sprinters Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Asian Games 21st-century Chinese sportswomen Athletes from Sichuan People from Fushun County, Sichuan Medalists at the 2021 Summer Universiade FISU World University Games silver medalists for China Universiade silver medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic athletes for China Athletes (track and field) at the 2024 Summer Olympics Beijing Sport University alumni Asian Athletics Championships medalists