Expected, yet unprepared, Asia's fastest sprinter Su Bingtian has possibly completed his career finale in a humbler-than-deserved way, as he looks forward to uncovering and nurturing the next big thing in Chinese athletics.

His start wasn't as explosive, his acceleration was off the pace and the result was nothing near his best — Su, the first and only 100m Olympic finalist from Asia, eventually proved vulnerable to the cruel nature of competitive sports.

In his first official race in nearly two years, the 35-year-old, who just came back from a long injury layoff, failed to meet the entry benchmark for this fall's National Games, after he clocked 10.49 seconds in the heats at the Zhaoqing leg of the domestic grand prix in Guangdong province on Friday.

He was all smiles, though, even knowing that his desired one last dash on the national stage in his native Guangdong province is almost impossible.

"I always said I would keep running until I couldn't do it at the very elite level. And now, I feel I really can't," Su said after failing to meet the 10.11s National Games entry mark with his performance on Friday.