He Jie sets new Chinese marathon record in Wuxi as country passes 2.5 million runner milestone

He Jie set China's new national men's marathon record at the 2024 Wuxi Marathon on Sunday, while Tadu Abate Dedm of Ethiopia and Kenya's Veronicah Njeri Maina won the men's and women's races respectively.

He, 25, clocked two hours, six minutes and 57 seconds to finish fourth in the men's race, 39 seconds shy of Dedm, who set a new event record during the race in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu Province.

Abay Alemu Lesa of Ethiopia and Nicholas Kirwa of Kenya finished second and third respectively.

"I'm more than satisfied with myself today, it's a result of our hard work from the training camp in Kenya," He reflected on the race. "The international athletes raced at a very high level today and I almost collapsed in the final kilometers. But the result showed that the better my opponents are, the stronger I am."

He improved the Chinese record by 46 seconds at last year's Wuxi Marathon, which was lowered by another 21 seconds by Yang Shaohui at the Fukuoka International Marathon last December.

"My goal was to break into two hours and six minutes for China. The new record doesn't belong to myself, but is a result of collective efforts from marathon runners of my generation," said a modest He.

At least 2.5 million people in China had completed a full marathon or half marathon event by the end of 2023, according to the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA).

The data was released at a CAA meeting held in Wuxi prior to this year's marathon.

Data showed that since 2016, at least 2.5 million people in China had completed a marathon or half marathon event by the end of 2023, including 641,700 in a full marathon and 1,859,000 in a half marathon, an increase of 142,700 and 507,500, respectively, from 2022.

In 2023, 699 road running events with a minimum of 800 participants were held across China, engaging a total number of 6,051,900 participants. More than 100 events were held each in April and November.

Meanwhile, professional and amateur runners have made rapid progress in 2023 as 11,897 athletes broke the three-hour time barrier.

Wang Nan, vice president of the Chinese Athletic Association, said that such road running events had not only boosted the sports consumer market but had also contributed to the economic growth of the host cities.

"The Chinese Athletic Association will aim to improve the quality of China's road running events from 2024 to 2026, on polishing system construction, standardizing competition organization, strengthening supervision, increasing training efforts, strengthening health care and security, and optimizing the education system," said Wang.

(With input from Xinhua)