Kenya's Nelson Ndereva, China's Wei win Beijing
marathon
AP
15 October 2000 – Beijing - Kenya's Nelson Ndereva won the Beijing Marathon for the second time Sunday, while China's Wei Yanan set a new course record in winning the women's race.
Ndereva, competing in his fourth Beijing marathon, collected $20,000 with his winning time of 2:13:52, slower than his personal best of 2:10:37 set when he last won the event in 1996, China's official Xinhua News Agency said.
"It's so nice for me to win the race again,'' Xinhua quoted Ndereva as saying. ``It's interesting to race here and I want to come next year.''
China's Hu Gangjun, a three-time winner of the event, placed second in 2:14:01, just five seconds ahead of Zhan Donglin, also of China, who placed third with 2:14:06.
Chinese athletes took the top three spots in the women's race, led by Wei's 2:26:34, the fastest women's time since the inaugural race in 1981, Xinhua said. The 19-year-old sports college student pocketed $10,000 for her win.
Sun Yingjie was just two seconds behind in 2:26:36, with Tian Mei third in 2:30:07. A total 13,400 runners competed in the race, run over a new course starting in Beijing's Tiananmen Square and finishing in a stadium in the east of the Chinese capital, Xinhua said.
