Huang Guanjun
34 years old, Huang Guanjun's speciality is running.
He was born into a poor peasant family in Beichuan County, Mianyang, Sichuan province. At the age of one and a half, Huang Guanjun became deaf and mute and handicapped due to a medical accident.
"I wanted to get good grades, I wanted to go to university, but I couldn't understand anything the teachers said, and I cried by myself every night." He wrote in a book for the reporter during an interview in 2014. Since dropping out of school in his second year, Huang Guanjun has worked odd jobs in many places, as a waiter, a delivery boy, and has also learned to embroider. This can also serve as a footnote to the difficulties of employment for the deaf and dumb.
However, Huang Guanjun found that fate had opened a window for him: running. He has devoted most of his energy to competing in track and field marathons. Huang Guanjun often places in various marathons, and a race can pay thousands to tens of thousands of yuan in prize money, which is an important source of income for him, according to Guyu Lab. "He makes a living from the prize money." Wei Jing, a close friend of Huang Guanjun and a marathon runner, said.
In 2014, Beichuan TV interviewed Huang Guanjun on the basis of a marathon as well. In the Xichang Qionghai Wetland International Open Marathon, in which about 20,000 people participated, Huang Guanjun ranked 47th as the only disabled person to participate, and 2nd out of more than 40 participants from Mianyang, Sichuan.
At the time, 27-year-old Huang Guanjun was working at the rehabilitation centre for the disabled in the new county town of Beichuan. His QQ nickname was "Lonely Alone" and his signature was "Lonely Running". "How much do you communicate with your father and mother?" The reporter who came to interview him asked him on a piece of paper. He used a pen to draw a line under "dad" and wrote "none", and a line under "mum" and wrote "less". The reporter asked, "What about with my sister? He wrote down, "less".
In 2018, he won the 10,000m event at the National Disabled Athletics Championships, and in 2019, he won the men's full marathon hearing impairment category at the 10th National Paralympics and 7th Special Olympics Athletics Marathon in Tianjin.
In the Yellow River Stone Forest Mountain Cross Country Race in Baiyin, Gansu, Huang Guanjun's number was M182. He paid a registration fee of RMB 1,000 and bought a new pair of sports shoes for the 100km cross country race. For a frugal man, this was a lot of money. He trained hard for the race and also trod the route at the venue in advance - for a professional runner, it didn't seem difficult to complete the trip successfully.
According to Sanlian Life Weekly, survivor Zhang Xiaotao recalled that 20 kilometres after setting off, he passed Huang Guanjun, but he did not know that his opponent was hearing impaired. When he greeted Huang Guanjun, he pointed his finger at his ear and waved his hand, meaning he could not hear. Next, Zhang Xiaotao fell unconscious on the mountain and was later rescued back to the kiln by an uncle who was herding sheep. When Huang Guanjun was found again, he was already dead.
Running had been his passion since he was a child, a solitary yet quiet and focused sport, and he loved to run around the village as a child. As he grew up, and for his marathon races and running training, he had collected medal prizes and pals who shared his love of running. Now, he leaves them.