Beijing marathon to hit the road on Sunday

Home>>Sports

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 16, 2003

Beijing marathon to hit the road on Sunday

The Beijing International Marathon will set off from Tian'anmen Square at 8:31 this Sunday morning and end at the National Olympic Centre of the Asian Games Village.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

The Beijing International Marathon will set off from Tian'anmen Square at 8:31 this Sunday morning and end at the National Olympic Centre of the Asian Games Village.

The 22-year-old annual event, which has been approved by International Association of Athletics Federations and the Association of International Marathons and Road Races, is the highest-level marathon event held in China. It is ranked among the top 10 major international marathons.

The event record of 2 hours 7 minutes and 35 seconds was achieved by Taisuke Kodama of Japan in 1986 and Abebe Mekonnen of Ethiopia in 1988. The record is recognized as the fifth-best time in marathon history by the IAAF.

This weekend's marathon will be the biggest sports event held by China since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome. To attract more participants, the organizers have added a celebrity run and a children's run to the original four runs - full marathon, half marathon, 10-kilometre run and 5-kilometre run.

Many world-famous runners have confirmed they will take part, such as South Africa's Ian Syster, whose personal best is 2 hours 7 minutes and 6 seconds, and China's Sun Yingjie, who collected the women's 10,000-metre bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships. About 20,000 professional and amateur runners are expected to take part.

The prize money for this year's event has reached new heights. The money for the women's gold medallist has been raised from US$10,000 to US$15,000. The runner breaking the men's record will get US$42,195.

The event has attracted strong support as well as world attention. As one of the official sponsors of this year's event, the world sports giant Nike is using the slogan "No Stopping, Beijing" as the capital prepares for the 2008 Olympics.

On the attractions will be the Nike-Sina special team. Through the website Sina.com, Nike has invited 250 volunteers who love Beijing and running marathons, together with three Nike-Sina sports beauties, to run the Beijing marathon. Their task is to spread the spirit of "No Stopping, Beijing" among the spectators.

Off the course, Nike is organizing a running-machine competition for Beijing university students. At the same time as marathon starts, two teams with 40 students from Beijing University and Renmin University of China will compete in a relay race on the running machine.

The marathon's influence even spread to the small county of Fenggang in Southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Yang Changfei, a 42-year-old farmer and marathon lover, has run 2,320 kilometres in 55 days from the county to Beijing to take part in the Beijing marathon.

Yang set out from his hometown on August 1 and crossed five provinces before reaching Beijing on September 25.

The farmer has been running for around three decades, first taking part in a distance running competition at the age of 13. He took part in Beijing marathon in 1989, 1999 and 2000.

Questions?Comments? Click here

China Wins Beijing Road Marathon Relay

Beijing Marathon To Be Held In October

Chinese, US presidents to meet in Bangkok ( 2 Messages)

Activists sail to Diaoyu Islands to proclaim sovereignty ( 5 Messages)

When will Nobel dream come true for China? ( 10 Messages)

US, don't be doubtful of everything: commentary ( 5 Messages)

China to launch manned space flight on Oct. 15 ( 33 Messages)