Lu established herself at national level in 2008 when she won the Chinese Olympic trials event, improving a personal best by a large margin with a jump of . At fifteen, she was the youngest athlete in the field and defeated Asian indoor champion Chen Yaling, but had not performed well enough to earn qualification. She was the world's number one ranked long jumper in the youth category in 2009 and claimed the gold medal at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Athletics with a jump of . She again defeated Chen in Chinese competition, winning the 2009 Chinese Games title with an Asian youth record mark of . In her first senior international competition she performed less well, but still managed a bronze medal at 2009 East Asian Games while Chen was the winner. She was the second highest ranked Asian woman that year, after Korea's Jung Soon-ok.