On December 17, the 2023 Xiamen Huandong Half Marathon started! Accompanied by 3 starting guns, 190,000 runners started this challenge on the Romantic Route.
In terms of men's runners in this event, Dong Guojian is the former Chinese half-marathon record holder; Peng Jianhua won the championship last year in the Xiamen Tour East Half Marathon with a record-breaking time of 1 hour 02 minutes 30 seconds; He Jie is the first Chinese men's marathon Asian Games gold medalist; Yang Shaohui set a new Chinese record of 2:07:09 at the Fukuoka Marathon last month.
On the women's side, Liu Min, the champion of the Beijing Half Marathon, Lu Ying, who won the whole marathon this season, and her teammate Liang Tiantian, as well as Huang Xuemei, an amateur runner from Xiamen and known as the "first sister of the Volkswagen Marathon", all participated in the race.
After fierce competition, Hicham Amghar from Morocco won the men's race with a time of 1:01:21, and Tebello Ramakongoana from Lesotho finished second with a time of 1:01:26, both breaking the record of the Tour de l'Edong Semi-Marseille.
The domestic record-breaking quartet, the performance of the game is not ideal, Yang Shaohui has a fever before the game, Peng Jianhua has a big ups and downs this year, He Jie has a cold before the game, and he has withdrawn from the game, only the veteran Dong Guojian has always retained the hope of breaking the record, and there has always been a young player behind him.
The 19-year-old student from Tsinghua University is named Wang Wenjie, when Dong Guojian began to show signs of slowdown, he began to accelerate after 18 kilometers, he shook his body sharply, and would look at his watch from time to time during the fast run, and breaking the record became his goal.
Unfortunately, Wang Wenjie's gunfire time when he crossed the line was 1 hour 02 minutes and 34 seconds, only 5 seconds away from breaking the record set by Peng Jianhua last year. According to reports, the Tour of the East Half Marathon is only the second half marathon event for the 19-year-old, and with a good foundation in the track race, there is hope of breaking the national half marathon record at such a young age, which is worth looking forward to.
In an interview after the race, Wang Wenjie said that he will try to run a marathon next year, and the first event is scheduled for Xiamen at the beginning of next year.
Liang Tiantian, who won the women's championship, is similar to Wang Wenjie, is also 19 years old, and is also the main field race, two years began to try to run half a marathon, last year in Haicang debut ran 1 hour 14 minutes to win the championship, this time around the East Half Marathon, she won the championship with a time of 1 hour 10 minutes 49 seconds, refreshing this year's women's best result, but also in the past 10 years, second only to Zhang Deshun's second best result.
Liu Min won the second place with a time of 1 hour, 11 minutes and 01 seconds, and Huang Xuemei, the "first sister of Chinese Volkswagen Women", won the third place with a time of 1 hour, 13 minutes and 01 seconds, both of which refreshed the PB.
The Tour of the East Half Marathon has become one of the fastest half marathon races in China, and a series of optimizations have been made in the organization of the competition this year. The first is to improve the accuracy of data-based live broadcasts, add more indicators, and enhance the viewing and interactivity of live broadcasts; The second is to shorten the cecal distance and adjust the route settings to help runners create personal bests; The third is to optimize the blue running line planning on the basis of the previous one, and truly realize the "shortest path".
The organizing committee has formulated a perfect service plan, and 1,248 volunteers are distributed in various positions such as collar, starting point, track, and finish point to provide thoughtful help to runners.