2:22:38* World junior Marathon best by Zhang Yingying in Xiamen

Saturday 5 January 2008

5 January 2008 – Competing in just her third Marathon, 18-year-old Zhang Yingying ran a World junior best over the distance, clocking 2:22:38* at the 6th Xiamen International Marathon on Saturday (5).

Zhang had already proven her capabilities over this distance in Beijing last October finishing second there with an impressive 2:27:20 personal best. Just days after that performance the super junior went on to finish third in the City Games 5000m in Wuhan with a 15:06.08 personal best and then won the 10,000m in 31:17.30 PB.

The Xiamen International Marathon is the first IAAF Gold Label Road Race of 2008.

In Xiamen Zhang stormed to the world class in the marathon as well, cutting almost five minutes from her 2007 PB, while bettering the previous fastest by a junior, Min Liu’s 2:23:37 set at the 2001 Beijing Marathon.

The Chinese federation had promised the third Olympic berth to the Xiamen marathon winner if the time was under 2:24, therefore Zhang will be the third competitor in Beijing should she choose to run the Marathon because she has qualified for both 5000m and 10,000m as well.

In theory the timetable would allow room to contest all three distances, although there is only one day between the 10,000m and Marathon races. Two Chinese runners, World Championships silver medallist Zhou Chunxiu and Zhu Xiaolin, who finished fourth in Osaka, had been selected for the Olympic team earlier.