Dark horses won the Olympic route marathons yesterday as chilly rain fell in Beijing. China's Chen Rong won the women's gold at the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Marathon Race. Mongolia's Serod Batochir won the men's race.
Led by Chen, Chinese women runners swept the podium. Chen finished the 42.195 km route in two hours, 30 minutes and 42 seconds; beating compatriot Zhou Chunxiu, the 2007 World Championships runner-up, by 7 minutes and 2 seconds; closely followed by Zhu Xiaolin.
"I didn't feel well. It was a little cold outside. But I'm happy I managed to get the gold," Chen said.
Zhou, who took gold at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar and the 2006 London Marathon, has already booked her berth for the Olympic squad.
The gold medal hopeful at the Beijing Games said the event was good practice for the Olympics.
"It was only a training class for me and my coach didn't give me a specific target," Zhou said, who also played down her hopes for the Games.
"It will be very hot in August, so it's a big challenge for every athlete. I will try my best to perform well, but it's difficult to tell what result I can achieve."
In the men's event, Batochir was ahead of China's Li Zhuhong, winning with a personal best of two hours, 14 minutes, and 15 seconds. Li crossed the line on 2:15:32, followed by China's Han Gang in 2:21:15.
"I'm very glad to win the gold here on the Olympic route," Batochir said.
"Now I have a good chance of competing in the Olympics. I'm looking forward to it."
The tournament kicked off at 7:30 am and the rain starte to hit a half hour later.
"It was difficult because I was very cold," he said of the heavy rain. "But the spectators kept cheering for me and I kept on running."
The marathon race was one of the Good Luck series test events for the Olympics. The newly announced race course was applauded by almost all the runners, although they had to finish it in the rain.
Batochir said the course, which passes through Temple of Heaven, Peking and Tsinghua Universities, was very beautiful.
"The whole course is very flat and will help runners improve their results," said the women's runner-up Zhou.
The route started from Tian'anmen and finished at the National Stadium, nicknamed the "Bird's Nest", and included sites of historical and contemporary interest.
Source: China Daily
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