News23 Apr 2009


Zhou in mood to regain her London title

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Zhou Chunxiu wins in London (© Getty Images)

When Zhou Chunxiu arrived in Britain for the 2007 Flora London Marathon she was a little known runner from China with a reputation for producing eye-catching performances across Asia but rare experience against the world’s very best marathon runners in one of the biggest competitions on the international scene.

The Flora London Marathon is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.

She left a few days later with a winner’s medal from one of the world’s most prestigious big city races and a hefty wedge of prize money in her back pocket.

Two years later she has returned to London as one of the most famous and feared women’s marathon runners in the world, with World Championships silver and Olympic bronze medals to her name, and financial wealth beyond her dreams thanks to her success on the international stage.

"A very good performance" expected!

Now 30, Zhou is no longer the shy, serious young woman of few words whose victory in the British capital so impressed the marathon-watching world. Keen to regain her title, this time she is not afraid to talk up her chances of victory despite the slight cold she picked up on the long journey west from her home in Jiangsu province.

“I am very happy to come to London again and grateful for the invitation,” she says. “Every athlete has the ambition to be a champion here and it is the same for me.

“Winning here two years ago was my first big success against an international field and I am happy to be back here again. It is difficult to say what will happen because every race is different but I am hoping for a very good performance.”

Quite what “a very good performance” means Zhou politely declines to say. Her best time of 2:19:51 came won she won the Seoul Marathon for the second time in 2006, becoming the seventh woman to break the magical 2:20 barrier. Currently, she is the ninth quickest female marathon runner ever, and her winning time two years ago – 2:20:38 – makes her the sixth quickest ever to complete the London course.

With the top women expected to go through half way in 71 minutes, there’s every chance she could improve her best on Sunday (26). Even at that pace, there is likely to be a big group at the front, however, as Zhou faces a field containing virtually every major name in elite marathon running bar the World record holder Paula Radcliffe.

Among her opponents will be the reigning London and World Marathon Majors champion Irina Mikitenko of Germany, Romania’s Olympic champion Constantina Dita, the twice World champion and Olympic silver medallist Catherine Ndereba, plus Svetlana Zakharova of Russia and Gete Wami of Ethiopia who finished second and third in London last year.

“I am very happy to be competing against lots of good athletes,” says Zhou, who was beaten to the World title in 2007 by Ndereba and then lost the Olympic silver medal to the Kenyan last year when Ndereba beat her by just one second in the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Chinese national heroine

In the wake of Liu Xiang’s demise, Zhou became the host nation’s first athletics medallist in Beijing and its number one track and field star of the Games. It is a position that has changed her life.

“Being number three at the Olympics made me very happy,” she says. “And everyone at home was very pleased for me too. In my home town of Suzhou everyone treated me like a heroine.

“The mayor of my home city and the mayor of the province hosted a dinner in my honour. There’s been a lot more interest in me. There’ll be a lot of people watching now to see my race on Sunday.”

Berlin World Championship ambitions

However, despite now owning her own house, Zhou insists the fame and riches have not diverted her focus from marathon running. She claims still to be training up to 180 miles a week during the winter months and is confident of her fitness ahead of a 2009 season that includes not only the London Marathon but the World Championships marathon in Berlin in August and the Chinese National Games in September when she plans to run both the marathon and 10,000m.

“After the Olympics my training has been intense,” she says. “It never stopped since Beijing and I am preparing for a lot of important competitions this year. I am used to the training volume and it has strengthened my confidence.”

After growing up on a farm in one of China’s poorest provinces, Zhou says she’s used to living a modest life. “The endurance was good preparation for marathon training,” she says.

Although she is clearly happy to have used some of her hard won riches to provide her parents with a better standard of living, she says she still doesn’t own a car because she doesn’t have time to drive.

“I put all my focus into training,” she says. “I don’t wear skirts or high heels either. Since I became an athlete I haven’t had a chance. Being an athlete, the most important thing to me is my performance and inner strength.”

It was that inner strength that so impressed when she won here in 2007. She will need it again on Sunday, but this time no one will be surprised if the woman from rural China once again conquers the streets of Britain’s capital city.

Chris Turner for the IAAF

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