Huang Shih-Feng (Chinese: 黃士峰; pinyin: Huáng Shìfēng; born 2 March 1992) is a Taiwanese track and field athlete who competes in the javelin throw. He is the Taiwanese record holder for the event with a personal best of 83.82 m (275 ft 0 in).
Huang initially played association football as a child, but after the school team was disbanded he took up athletics around the age of 14. He continued with both sports and study, beginning a degree at Fu Jen Catholic University.[2] He had his first international success in the youth category of the sport: entering the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics as a rank outsider, he surprised by topping the qualification with a throw of 74.75 m (245 ft 2+3⁄4 in) – a two-metre improvement on his lifetime best at that point.[3] He reached the 74-metre mark in the final and declared himself shocked to have claimed the gold medal over Killian Durechou of France.[4] He stepped up to the junior category the following year and managed a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Junior Athletics Championships, behind his compatriot Cheng Chao-Tsun.[5] He was unable to repeat global success at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, finishing the qualification round without a single valid mark.[6]
Huang had a consistent level of improvement in his first three years throwing the senior weight javelin: in 2010 he threw 72.74 m (238 ft 7+3⁄4 in), then had a best of 73.63 m (241 ft 6+3⁄4 in) in 2011, and 76.54 m (251 ft 1+1⁄4 in) in 2012.[6] He represented his nation at the 2013 Summer Universiade, placing 13th in the final.[7] He threw beyond eighty metres for the first time at the 2013 East Asian Games and was rewarded with a Taiwanese national record of 82.11 m (269 ft 4+1⁄2 in) and a silver medal (losing only to China's Zhao Qinggang, some seven years his senior).[8] He ranked third among Asian throwers that year, behind Zhao and Ivan Zaytsev.[9]
He began 2014 with a win at the Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, but his mark of 81.53 m (267 ft 5+3⁄4 in) proved to be his season's best.[10] He threw nearly seven metres less at the 2014 Asian Games and finished down in ninth as a result.[11] He was strong in the early season again in 2015, setting a mark of 81.48 m (267 ft 3+3⁄4 in) in March in Taipei City.[6] A throw of 79.74 m (261 ft 7+1⁄4 in) proved sufficient to hold off both Uzbek Bobur Shokirjonov and Japan's Yukifumi Murakami at the 2015 Asian Athletics Championships, earning Huang his first major senior title.[12] He was the first Taiwanese to win an Asian title in the javelin throw at either the Asian Athletics Championships or the Asian Games.[13][14]
