No social distancing – we’re going the distance!
China and India defy virus pandemic to host marathons
Runners take off at the starting line of the Shanghai marathon in China yesterday.
SHANGHAI: Around 9,000 runners – some wearing face masks – took part in the Shanghai International Marathon, Chinese media said, a rare mass event in a year when coronavirus laid waste to most such sport.
Prior to the race officials touted it as an opportunity to show how China – where the virus emerged late last year before unleashing a pandemic – is moving ahead despite the continuing global health crisis.
The prestigious New York, Berlin, Boston and Chicago marathons all fell victim to coronavirus this year, while London and Tokyo were open only to elite runners.
Bucking that trend, the Shanghai marathon went ahead yesterday under sunny skies following several days of rain, and with virus prevention measures in place to thwart infections.
Shanghai is on edge following a scattering of recent local cases, but China has largely got to grips with the epidemic thanks to strict lockdowns and aggressive mass testing.
Runners had to pass a coronavirus test in order to take part and were ordered to wear a mask immediately before and after the race. Some kept them on the whole time.
About 9,000 runners had been expected to take part, down from 38,000 in previous Shanghai marathons. No overseas athletes flew in for the race and spectators were told to stay away.
Distance running is booming in China, with state media saying there is “marathon fever”.
In February, when the country was shut down by the pandemic, one fanatical runner jogged the equivalent of an ultra-marathon inside his small apartment.
In NEW DELHI, elite runners brushed off poor air quality and a surge in coronavirus cases in India’s capital for the Delhi Half Marathon, one of the country’s first major
sporting events since the pandemic started.
Forty-seven professional runners hit the 21km (13.1-mile) course in the men’s and women’s event, while amateur participants raced between Wednesday and yesterday to prevent overcrowding.
The route was sprayed with chemicals to minimise the effect of Delhi’s annual toxic smog, which blankets the megacity in winter due to traffic and industrial pollution, crop stubble burning and cold tem
peratures.
The air quality index – which monitors tiny PM2.5 and PM10 particles that get into the bloodstream and vital organs – was at 244 and in the “poor” category, the Central Pollution Control Board said yesterday.
Doctors last week said it would be “suicidal” for runners to take part in the competition given the twin risks.
Ethiopia’s Amdework Walelegn won the men’s race with a course
record of 58.53 minutes with last year’s champion Andamlak Belihu just a second behind.
The previous best was 59.06 set by Ethiopia’s Guye Adola in 2014.
In the women’s race, Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia won in 1’04:46 – also a record – with Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich second.
Avinash Sable, who has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in 3000m steeplechase, was the top Indian finisher with a record national time of 1’00:30. — AFP