Sun Yingjie leads the 10,000m Final in Paris (© Getty Images)
Zhou Chunxiu won the women’s section of the second Xiamen International Marathon, a race which also served as the National Championships and Olympic Trials for the Chinese marathon runners (Saturday 27 March).
With several athletes invited from abroad, the competition was of much better quality than in the inaugural competition last season.
Women’s race - Zhou Chunxiu books Athens spot
In the absence of Asian marathon record holder Sun Yingjie (2:19:39), the women's race was left very open.
The 25-year-old reigning national champion Zhou Chunxiu took control of the race early on and crushed her own course record from last season (2:34:16) by more than 10 minutes finishing in 2:23:28, in what was only her third career marathon.
Li Helan finished second in 2:28:17, and will join the winner in the Chinese team for Athens, while Ham Bong Sil of People's Republic of Korea finished third in 2:28:32.
The winning time was also a personal best for Zhou, who ran 2:23:41 in Beijing last October to finish second behind Sun Yingjie's Asian record.
Olympic distance dilemma for Sun Yingjie
Sun, the World 10,000m bronze medallist has an automatic place in the Olympic marathon squad if she wants to run the distance in Athens. As such the 26 year-old was not required to take part to this Olympic Trial and will be one of the starters at next month's London Marathon.
However, given that the Marathon comes before both the 5000 and 10,000m on the Olympic programme in Athens it is presumed Sun, who is both the Asian Games and Championships double gold medallist on the track, will probably prefer to run only the 5000m and 10,000m at the Olympic Games. Any attempt at a good placing in the track events after running a marathon would surely be impossible.
Wang Yu, who was fourth in Xiamen on Saturday with 2:29:27, is likely to join the Chinese squad for Athens if Sun decides not run the marathon in Athens.
However, Zhang Shujing, who ran 2:23 times in both 2002 and 2003 and also ran in the Paris World Championships marathon, will probably not make the Olympic selection as she finished sixth on Saturday with a relatively slow time for her of 2:29:53. She has lost her good form as this is only a few seconds faster than her first marathon of this season earlier this month in Seoul.
Men’s race - Kenyan win
The men's favourite Josephat Kiprono (KEN), has been suffering from an injury this season which also prevented him from winning here. The Kenyan who did not complete the Lake Biwa Marathon in Japan earlier this month, lost his pace with the leading pack well before the finish here too. Kiprono finished a distant eighth in 2:14:57, over four minutes behind the winner.
Unchallenged, 26-year-old James Moiben also from Kenya ran a very even race and comfortably won in 2:10:54 with no need for a sprint finish.
The best Chinese men’s marathon hope, 20-year-old Li Zhuhong, is also getting closer to his best form, recording 2:11:43 for second place with Ethiopian Dawit Terefa, third in 2:11:45 just losing the second to the fast finishing Li.
Li Zhuhong, as only a 17-year-old in 2001 had recorded a world junior best of 2:10:46 in the Beijing International Marathon, but has been out of form since. His 2:11:43 on Saturday is the best time by a Chinese marathon runner since 2001.
