First-ever cross-boundary marathon runs at China's 15th National Games

GUANGZHOU -- China's National Games held its first-ever cross-boundary marathon on Saturday, with both men's and women's races run on a course spanning Shenzhen in Guangdong Province and Hong Kong.

China's national record holder He Jie of Ningxia pulled away near the 35-kilometer mark and held the lead to finish in 2:12:07. Gao Peng of Yunnan finished seven seconds behind to take silver, while the bronze went to Wu Xiangdong of Anhui in 2:12:33.

"I finished fourth at the last edition of the National Games four years ago, which was hard to accept," said the 26-year-old He. "I ran many races in the past four years, and I won gold at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. But today's gold made me the happiest."

After twice improving the national marathon record, which currently stands at 2:06:57, He did not hide his ambition to break it again.

"My next goal is to break the 2:06:00 barrier. That's the dream for me and my coach," he said.

In the women's race, defending champion Zhang Deshun of Yunnan broke away from a three-runner leading pack after 40 kilometers and finished in 2:30:20, holding off her rivals by five seconds. Ciren Cuomu was second, followed by Lu Ying of Henan in 2:30:44.

A total of 71 athletes competed, including five from Hong Kong and one from Macao. The 42.2-kilometer course ran through Shenzhen's Nanshan District and Hong Kong's Yuen Long District. The Shenzhen section was 20.3 km and the Hong Kong section 21.9 km, with the start and finish in Shenzhen.

The marathon featured facial recognition technology and "zero delay, zero contact, zero waiting" customs clearance for personnel, vehicles and materials to ensure smooth operations.

In addition to staging the first cross-boundary marathon, the National Games debuted the mixed 4x100 meters relay at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center, where in-stadium athletics events also began on Saturday.

The Fujian team, consisting of Lin Yuwei, Ge Manqi, Xiao Yuanpeng and He Jinxian, stormed to a national best mark of 40.37 seconds to win the new event, which has been included in the program of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The relay features a running order of woman, woman, man, man.

Sichuan finished second in 40.78 and Hubei third in 40.92.

In the 4x400m mixed relay final, pre-race favorite Guangdong held off a strong challenge from Sichuan to win in 3:17.54, while Sichuan clocked 3:17.66 and Hebei finished third in 3:19.99.