HENGSHUI, China, Sept. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2016 Hengshui
Lake International Marathon & National Marathon Championships
(No. 4 Station) kicked off on September
24th in Hengshui, a city in China's Hebei
province. Two Ethiopian runners bagged the top titles at the Full
Marathon competitions, with Woldaregay Kelkile Gezahegn winning the
men's title and Meseret Legese
Regasa taking the women's. Xu
Wang and Cao Mojie from China respectively claimed the men's and
women's titles at the National Marathon Championships (No. 4
Station).
Nearly 16,000 runners participated in one of the race
categories, the Full Marathon, the Half Marathon and the Five
Kilometer. The competition, approved by the Chinese Athletics
Association, was co-organized by the Chinese Athletics Association,
the Hebei Provincial Bureau of Sports and the Hengshui Municipal
People's Government, in partnership with the Hebei Sports Bureau's
Track and Field Management Center and the Hengshui Municipal Bureau of Sports.
The 2016 competition is the fifth Hengshui Lake International
Marathon and the third National Marathon Championship. The
inaugural event was deemed by the Chinese Athletic Association as a
Silver Label race, while the second and third editions were awarded
Gold Labels. In 2014, the event was upgraded to the status of a
National Marathon Championship and named as one of China's 2014 top sports and tourism
events.
The Hengshui Lake International Marathon is the only such event
in China that can truly be said to
take place alongside a lake for the entire duration, as the
starting and ending points as well as the majority of the course
are all located alongside Hengshui Lake. The elaborately planned,
designed and constructed tracks around the lake have been acclaimed
for their wide and flat surfaces, as well as the gently sloping
course - the altitude ranges from 21 meters to 26 meters above sea
level - complemented by the
beauty of the surrounding terrain, landscaped with trees and
flowers in bloom. The negative oxygen ion content of Hengshui Lake,
measured at 4,600 per cubic centimeter, dozens of times what it is
in the neighboring cities, allows
the lake and its immediate environs to serve as a natural oxygen
bar.
The professional runners who won the top titles at the men's and
women's Full Marathons each also walked away with $US 40,000.
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160925/411505
To view the original version on PR Newswire,
visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ethiopian-runners-sweep-both-mens-and-womens-top-titles-at-the-2016-hengshui-lake-international-marathon-300333697.html
SOURCE Hengshui Municipal Bureau of Sports