Running News Daily

The 2020 Chongging International Marathon has been postponed

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2020 Chongqing International Marathon, which was originally scheduled for March 22, is to be postponed, organisers said on Monday.

Organizers in southwest China's Chongqing municipality said that they will retain the qualification of the runners who successfully registered. Runners who quit the race can get an unconditional refund and keep their qualifications alive until the next marathon race in 2021.

The event, an IAAF race, is sponsored by the China Athletic Association and Chongqing Municipal Sports Bureau.

(02/17/2020) Views: 1,890 ⚡AMP

Ethiopians Aberu Mekuria and Jimma Shambel dominated at the Chongqing Marathon

Aberu dominated the women's race, running at the head of the pack from the 10km point on en route to a 2:24:30 victory. The run knocked five seconds from the 35-year-old's previous lifetime best set at the Valencia Marathon last December.

Running alongside Kenyan Lydia Cheromei through the opening five kilometres (17:36), she pulled away shortly thereafter, building a 13-second lead by the 10km point (34:44).

She increased her lead over the Kenyan to 47 seconds by 15 kilometres and to more than a minute-and-a-half by 20.

While Aberu forged on alone, Cheromei dropped back and out of contention by 30km. By that point, Aberu was already more than two minutes clear of the field and eventually won the race by more than three minutes.

Further back, Chinese Li Zhixuan and He Yinli finished second and third, clocking 2:27:56 and 2:29:14, respectively.

Conversely, the men's race came down to the wire, with Shambel out-sprinting Kenyan Edwin Kibet Koech in the waning stages to pull off the narrow win, with both men clocking 2:10:28.

Thirteen men were in contention at 10km (31:27), a pack reduced to ten at 30km covered in 1:33:22, with Kibet running at the front.

Tufa and Marius Kimutai brought the lead pack, now down to five, through 40km in 2:04:10, with Koech a second behind and Kenyan Michael Njenga Kunyuga and Ethiopian Gebretsadik Abraha shadowing the trio another second back.

(04/01/2019) Views: 2,250 ⚡AMP

Marius Kimutai of Kenya will lead a deep field at the Chongqing Marathon aiming to break the course record

The men’s course record belongs to Ethiopia’s 2017 winner Afewerk Mesfin, who clocked 2:09:49 to mark the first ever sub-2:10 result since the race launched in 2011.

Nine sub-2:10 runners will line up for the top honours at the southwestern Chinese city this year and Kimutai is the fastest entrant on paper thanks to his personal best of 2:05:47 set in Amsterdam in 2016.

He came close to that mark two years ago when he clocked a winning time of 2:06:04 in Rotterdam. His only outing over the 26.2-mile distance last year was a fourth-place finish in Seoul in 2:07:45.

It will be Kimutai’s first appearance in Chongqing but his third race in China following a victory in Danzhou in 2014 and a runner-up finish in Dongying in 2016.

Ethiopia’s Gebretsadik Abraha could be the biggest challenge to Kimutai. Although his career best of 2:06:21 was set back in 2012 from his third-place finish in Amsterdam, the 26-year-old Marrakesh and Prague marathon winner has an impressively consistent record over the classic distance, registering a sub-2:10 result each year for the past seven years.

Kenyan veteran Philip Kimutai Sanga is another man to watch on Sunday. The 35-year-old has a lifetime best of 2:06:07 from the 2011 Frankfurt Marathon but has not bettered 2:10 since 2017.

The field also includes Asbel Kipsang, whose PB of 2:07:30 was set in Seoul three years ago, and Edwin Koech, a 2:08:17 performer who set the course record in Dalian last May.

The women’s field is led by Lydia Cheromei of Kenya, who will carry on the hope of breaking the long-standing 2:22:41 course record set by local runner Wang Jiali in 2012.

Although usually competing with runners just half of her age, the 41-year-old Cheromei is still highly competitive. Last December she ran 2:22:11 to finish second at the Valencia Marathon, 41 seconds shy of her PB recorded back in 2012. She also clocked 2:28:48 to win in Rabat 12 months ago and four months earlier she clocked 2:23:31 to finish as the runner-up in Shanghai.

Aberu Mekuria also competed in the Valencia Marathon last year and improved her PB by nearly one minute to finish fourth in 2:24:35. It will be the third race on Chinese soil for the 35-year-old, who won the 2016 Hengshui Lake Marathon in 2:26:07.

Flomena Chepchirchir is the second fastest on paper in the field with a PB of 2:23:00 set in Frankfurt in 2013. But the 37-year-old Kenyan is struggling to return to her best form in recent years as her best performance last year was a sixth-place finish in Prague in 2:32:10. Chepchirchir will be contesting the race for the first time.

(03/29/2019) Views: 2,693 ⚡AMP

Hot and humid weather slowed the times at Chongqing Marathon

Ethiopia’s Meseret Legese and Kennedy Cheboror of Kenya took the women’s and men’s titles respectively at the Chongqing International Marathon, an IAAF Gold Label road race on Sunday (25). The 30-year-old Legese led a four-woman leading group in the first 15 kilometres and enjoyed a comfortable sole lead in the final stages of the race after passing the 30-kilometre mark in 1:45:48, 35 kilometres in 2:03:29 and 40 kilometres in 2:21:22. Cheboror upset a quality field that included several sub-2:10 runners to achieve his first career win over 26.2 miles. His winning time of 2:13:41 is 3:20 shy of the personal best he set in Brescia 12 months ago, but today’s race was held in humid and foggy weather conditions. (03/25/2018) Views: 2,048 ⚡AMP