“Falling in love with a city while running”. The 2020 C&D Xiamen Marathon started at 7:30 a.m. on January 5, with 35,071 runners having qualified, and 29,805 of them joining the event in the flesh. Runners from 41 countries and regions participated in the celebration of the 18th anniversary of the Xiamen Marathon, recalling the memories of previous marathons at the same location through their sweat, tears and laughter.
Ethiopian players swept the men’s and women’s titles
In alignment with the platinum standard of the 2020 World Athletics Federation (formerly the International Association of Athletics Federations), the 2020 C&D Xiamen Marathon invited outstanding athletes from all over the world to join in the competition, including 6 with platinum designations. After a fierce race, Ethiopia’s Birhan Nebebew Tesfaye won the race in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 16 seconds, a minute and 20 seconds faster than what he clocked in at last year, when he came in third. In the post-race press briefing, he said it was the first time he had won a major marathon, and that a change in the course to reduce the number and severity of the 180-degree turns this year had helped him greatly.
Medina Deme Armino from Ethiopia came up from behind in the final sprint, defending her women’s title in 2 hours, 26 minutes and 12 seconds.
Yang Dinghong is the marathon’s Chinese winner
The Xiamen Marathon has become a mecca for runners due to its good competition environment and excellent services. This year, the competition attracted a large number of top Chinese athletes, including 61 men who had finished within 2:30:00 and 12 women completing within 2:45:00.
Yang Dinghong garnered the Chinese men’s title, clocking in at 2 hours, 13 minutes and 50 seconds, the best result of the competition for a Chinese athlete in the past decade. The women’s title was won by first-time competitor Li Zhixuan in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 44 seconds, while He Yinli and Bai Li finished second and third in 2:33:40 and 2:39:27.
Reformulating the scheduling of the starting pistol in a move to improve the quality of service at the event overall
2020 C&D Xiamen Marathon, the largest full marathon in China, has been upgrading the competition rules as part of an overall plan to enhance its professionalism across the board. To better control crowding and avoid bottlenecks along the course, the organizing committee has upped the number of starting intervals from three to five, with the starting pistol being fired for the first three groups of runners at an interval of 6 minutes each followed by two 9-minute intervals for the last two groups. Traffic control along the route combined with the change in the schedule of the firing of the starting pistol not only relieves track congestion and improves the athlete’s running times, but also enhances the event’s overall service level.
First female marathon program encourage more female runners to participate
First female marathon program, encourage more female runners, provide places for 500 female runners, with half marathon results. Increasing 12 percent over last year, 5,547 women pre-registered for the race.
Rich supporting activities，first time to set up a Breakfast Run
The 2020 C&D Xiamen Marathon in the continuation of the classic supporting activities “Green run”, Photography Competition, Kids run, Online marathon, Cheerleading contest and Sailing race on the basis of the new supporting activities breakfast running. On kulangsu island，the breakfast running has 1000 runners from all over the world running on the World Cultural Heritage, enjoying the unique amorous feelings of Piano Island in the charming island scenery.
Build a three-color public welfare system to aid the less advantaged, as well as a campaign advocating green travel day
The 2020 C&D Xiamen Marathon sponsored a three-color – red, green and blue – public welfare program, with each color representing a separate effort with its own goal. The “red” program focuses on poverty alleviation, with the provision of support, care and relief to the less advantaged. Specific actions included the initiation of a crowdfunding program to buy and provide automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as well as the establishment of “caring book corners” or small libraries consisting of donated books and reading materials in 30 classrooms within 5 schools in Linxia, Gansu province as well as across Fujian province.
The “green” program advocates improvements in the region’s environment and ecology and the establishment of an “ecology-first” approach to the future of civilization, by initiating the “green travel day” campaign which won the Green Award from the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) for its call to the public to use public transportation and for the event organizers to strictly control the issuance of vehicle passes on the day of the event. In addition, a bank for the collection and storage of plastic items, as well as for the amassing of seedlings that will be used to create the Xiamen Marathon Caring Forest, was opened alongside of the route for the event’s C&D Green Run.
The “blue” program advocates reduction of plastic pollution and caring for marine health, by collaborating with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to spread the message to the public about the best way to reduce the use and disposal of plastic, especially throw-away plastic bottles, by using PLA-coated biodegradable paper cups, setting up plastic recycling stations, and replacing paper manuals and flyers with digital ones.
SOURCE 2020 C&D Xiamen Marathon
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