2018 Nanjing marathon and national marathon championships (Nanjing station) kicked off at Dongmen square of Nanjing Olympic Sports Center at 7:30 am on Nov. 4th. The event was sponsored by Chinese Athletic Association, The People's Government of Nanjing and Jiangsu Provincial Sports Bureau and undertaken by Nanjing Municipal Sports Bureau. More than 28,000 competitors at home and abroad took part in the event and several provincial and municipal leaders as well as relevant principals took part in the running ceremony. Aguilis Lascos, deputy mayor of Marathon, Greece and Gong Xiangyu, Jiangsu women's volleyball player were also invited to take part in the running ceremony.
The Nanjing Marathon this year is an important station of “Run China” Marathon Series with the theme of “Carrying through the reforms”. Starting off from Dongmen square of Nanjing Olympic Sports Center, the competitors passed through several famous historical&cultural attractions and classic Nanjing landmarks such as the Grand Baoen temple, Zhonghuamen, Confucius temple, Xinjiekou, and so on. The citizens along the way constantly cheered on the competitors. The event was live broadcast through CCTV, which fully demonstrated the urban style of the beautiful ancient capital and innovative city of Nanjing, and showed the good civilized quality of Nanjing citizens. On the occasion of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the reform and opening-up policy, Nanjing people and the contestants expressed their best wishes for the great motherland with this unique form.
According to statistics, among the competitors, the number of domestic competitors outside Nanjing accounts for 83%. In addition, the marathon also attracted international runners from Canada, South Korea, America, Russia, Spain, Singapore and other countries to take part in. After more than two hours of struggling, KORIR FELEX KIPCHUMBA from Kenya won the Men's full marathon with 2:14:16, and URISA KEBENE CHALA from Ethiopia won the Women's full marathon.
(Source: nanjing.gov.cn)
