Congratulations to Ethiopians Girmay Birhanu Gebru and Fatuma Sado Dergo, the men's and women's winners of the 34th Beijing International Marathon that was run today in "very unhealthy" to "hazardous" air. It was so bad that Xinhua even called it "smog" in an article that begins with this incredible factoid:
Via China News: "April 13, 2014, Pyongyang, DPRK, Kim Il-sung Stadium hosted the 27th annual Mangyongdae Prize International Marathon to commemorate the late Kim Il-sung, Great Leader of North Korea. According to the Associated Press, this year's race was the first time foreign travelers were allowed to participate."
Obviously the practice of smearing one's face with black paint has no racial context in this country -- one that's relatively blunt about race on all occasions, usually without offense intended -- but for a team of runners sponsored by a global company like adidas, someone really should've tapped an organizer on the shoulder and nixed this photo-op, yeah?
The 33rd year of the Beijing Marathon yesterday saw 30,000 participants run underneath a blue sky and a beautiful little sun. Those who completed the full course started west from Tiananmen and then turned north toward Olympic Green, with Ethiopian Tadese Tola winning the men's race with a new event record time of 2:07:16 and China's Zhang Yingying winning the women's title in 2:31:19. By all accounts, it was glorious.
The Guangzhou Marathon on November 18 attracted more than 20,000 runners, the vast majority of whom ran without health complications. Two young men, however, died. The first, Chen Jie, was a 19-year-old student at Guangdong AIB Polytechnic College from Maoming, Guangdong province (he was initially identified as 21 years old). Shortly after finishing his 10-kilometer... Read more »
This year’s Beijing Marathon had its share of hiccups. During registration, Japanese runners were initially barred, leading people to call for the race to lose its “Gold Label” accreditation from the International Association of Athletics Federations. Then, just this week, anxiety loomed over air quality, which hovered between “very unhealthy” and “hazardous.” But when the race... Read more »
The cancellation of long-distance races at university games has highlighted the issue of declining physical fitness among college students. –China Daily, November 12, 2012 The first Guangzhou Marathon was held yesterday morning, with local media estimating that about 20,000 people participated. (This number should be taken with a grain of salt; in September, organizers said... Read more »
