News19 Oct 2008


19-year-old Bai Xue saunters to victory with 2:26 run in Beijing Marathon

FacebookTwitterEmail

Bai Xue in the 2008 Olympic Games 10,000m final (© Getty Images)

Benjamin Kiptoo of Kenya and China's Bai Xue were the winner’s of today’s 2008 HYX Beijing International Marathon, in 2:10:14 and 2:26:27 respectively.

Thousands of visitors pack Tiananmen Square every day, but by 7am (GMT +8hrs) today (19 October), Chinese spectators instead lined the outside of the famous square, held back by a police cordon.  Inside the square, elite marathon runners among others from Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Japan, North Korea, and China warmed up for the Beijing Marathon, which is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.

Men

Under relatively blue skies, the temperature at the start of the race was a comfortable 15-degrees Centigrade, though humidity was already at 37%.  The gun went off at 8am and the men's race unfolded with a large lead pack, which thinned considerably around the halfway point, leaving nine runners in contention. 

At the 32km mark, China's Ren Longyun pulled away with three Kenyans: Benjamin Kiptoo, Luka Chelimo, and Simon Wangai.  Ren attempted to drop the Kenyans by setting a gruelling pace over the next kilometre but they resisted his assault and a further kilometre later the Chinese had himself been dropped, setting up a three-way Kenyan sprint to the finish, with Kiptoo setting the pace.

By the 39km, Wangai could no longer keep up either, while Chelimo trailed Kiptoo by just a few strides, though that was the closest he would ever come to overtaking his countryman. 

In the final kilometres, Kiptoo glanced over his shoulder to check the margin of his lead, no longer able to gauge the distance by the now increasingly muffled footfalls of his opponent. 

Despite temperatures climbing to 20 degrees and 53% humidity, Kiptoo surged to the finish, breaking the tape in 2:10:14, shy of his personal best of 2:09:24, and just missing a time incentive award. (Finishers between 2:09:00-2:09:59 would have received $5,000, those between 2:08:00-2:08:59 $10,000, and those between 2:07:35-2:07:59 $15,000. A time of 2:07:34 would have broken the current course record and merited $42,195.) 

Chelimo crossed the finish line in 2:10:30 for second place and a 17-second personal best. Wangai followed 22 seconds later for third (2:10:52).

Women

Though the men's race was full of suspense until the final two kilometres, the overall star of this year’s Beijing Marathon was 19-year old Bai Xue of China, who destroyed the women's field with her 2:26:47 victory.

Bai Xue, a 10,000m specialist who finished 21st at that distance in the Beijing Olympics in August, had posted her personal best time for the marathon with a 2:23:27 run earlier this year at the Xiamen International Marathon to finish almost 50 seconds behind the winner Zhang Yingying. 

However, today Bai Xue outpaced countrywoman and defending champion Chen Rong, who finished second in 2:28:25, with Zhang Yingying placing third in 2:28:52.  Kenya's Hellen Kimutai, considered the top foreign contender on the women's side, placed fourth in 2:29:19.

By Bai Xue’s own recollection, she left the rest of the field behind between the five and six kilometre marks.  She ran with men for the rest of the way, drafting behind a male runner for much of the rest of the race before he finally pulled ahead. 

"I didn't know him," she said after the race, when asked if he was her pacer. "But I thought he was running at a pretty good pace, and so I chose to stay with him.  At the end though, I couldn't catch up.  He was too fast."
 
Having competed in Beijing prior to the Olympic Games, Xue was asked if she noticed any differences in fan support before and after the Olympics came to China.

"The fans are more passionate now," she said.  No doubt her dominant performance contributed to their enthusiasm.

Caitlin Rhodes for the IAAF


RESULTS

2008 HYK Beijing International Marathon

Men
     
1 Benjamin KIPTOO KEN 2:10:14
2 Luka CHELIMO KEN 2:10:30
3 Simon WANGAI KEN 2:10:52
4 Rachid KISRI MAR 2:11:31
5 Lawrence K SAINA KEN 2:13:25
6 CHEN Wei CHN 2:13:46
7 REN Longyun CHN 2:14:27
8 WANG Zemin CHN 2:15:03
9 Masahiko TAKEYASU JPN 2:15:10
10 CHEN Guoqiang CHN 2:15:32

Women

1 BAI Xue CHN 2:26:27
2 CHEN Rong CHN 2:28:25
3 ZHANG Yingying CHN 2:28:52
4 Hellen KIMUTAI KEN 2:29:19
5 Alice CHELANGAT KEN 2:31:40
6 KIM Chol Sun PRK 2:33:15
7 WANG Jiali CHN 2:36:07
8 Margaret K TOROITCH KEN 2:36:26
9 SUN Weiwei CHN 2:39:26
10 ZHANG Junli CHN 2:39:33

Pages related to this article
Disciplines
Loading...