Xinhuanet sports Lanzhou, May 31 (reporter Li Xu Gong Yuanyuan) the 2019 International Tian Lian road running Conference was held in Lanzhou, China on the 31st. For the first time that this event was settled in China, Wang Nan, secretary of the Party Committee of the track and field Sports Management Center of the State General Administration of Sports and vice chairman of the China Track and Field Association, said that China road running has become the latest presentation of the intersection and integration of world sports civilization, choosing to hold this grand meeting in Lanzhou is the IAAF’s high recognition of the rapid development of China’s road running movement, and it is also an in-depth exchange and integration of Chinese wisdom and international ideas.
Talk about the current situation: good policies, increasing number of people and continuous improvement of quality
Marathon has gone through nearly 40 years in China. However, this “extreme sport”, which had been little known before, began to enter the fast lane only after the Chinese government implemented the policy of “releasing, managing and serving” in 2014, and gradually stepped into the front of professional players, fly into ordinary people.
“It can be said that the vigorous development of Marathon in China benefits from the country’s high attention to mass sports work.” Wang Nan pointed out, “China Track and Field Association also actively promotes the development and promotion of road running in China, constantly mobilizing the enthusiasm of the society to hold competitions, and at the same time plus-sized training and strengthening management to make marathon healthy, standardized, orderly development.”
With the policy bonus and capital support, China Marathon once showed a geometric style growth, which increased from dozens to thousands in just a few years. At present, the coverage rate in Chinese cities has reached. Correspondingly, road running has become one of the favorite exercise methods of the Chinese public, and more than half of the people will choose running to achieve the goal of fitness and body strength. “The total number of people who completed the marathon and half marathon in 2018 was 1.1397 million, and the total number of people who finished the marathon was 761200. The annual increase in the completion rate reflects the increasing professional level of Chinese marathon runners.” Wang Nan said.
There is a market if there is a demand. As the management department of China’s road running, China Track and Field Association has always been focusing on providing high-quality events for the public. Over the years, excellent series such as running China, moving China and healthy China have been born one after another. Special series such as community running, cross-country running and mountain running have continuously expanded the boundaries of road running, making the public diversified, personalized competition needs are met.
With the increase of quantity, the domestic high-quality competitions are also increasing year by year. From 2008 when IAAF started the certification of global road running signage events, to 11 years in 2019, the number of Chinese marathon signage events in IAAF increased from 2 to 19, an increase of 8.5 times. Meanwhile, the Chengdu marathon has just become a candidate for China’s prime world marathon grand slam league. “The international influence of China’s marathon is increasing.” Wang Nan concluded.
The meaning of the conversation: when the carrier, doing public welfare and demonstrating cultural confidence
along with the rapid development of road running movement in China, Wang Nan believes that taking road running as the representative, sports and fitness activities aiming at health are becoming an important carrier for Chinese people to pursue a better life.
“The rise of China’s road running sport not only inherits the unique sports spirit of this endurance sport, but also integrates Chinese culture into it, which has become the latest presentation of the convergence and integration of world sports civilization.” Wang Nan pointed out.
Looking back on the development of the ancient road running movement, China has become its latest a place to stay, and has injected new vitality into the international road running movement, showing a new atmosphere. “China has nearly 1.4 billion people, and there is enough space for sports population waiting to be awakened by road running.” Wang Nan said, “Chinese road running has extremely gorgeous colors. Every City Marathon is a perfect combination of the city’s cultural landscape, regional characteristics and the city’s appearance. And all these show a new atmosphere for the global movement of road running.”
Wang Nan took public welfare as an example. In 2019, Xiamen marathon became the first marathon in the world to join the “clean ocean” program of the United Nations Environment Programme. 2018 Beijing Marathon donated marathon theme library for primary and secondary schools. “The integration of public welfare spirit and marathon culture is an important part of China’s road running culture today.” Wang Nan said, “the Chinese road running, represented by Marathon, allows more Chinese to devote themselves to public welfare undertakings. Through holding various activities during the competition, it calls for the society to care about green environmental protection.”
At the same time, marathon has become the best booth for each city’s unique culture. “From the northernmost Mohe in China to Sanya, every city has its own urban culture.” Wang Nan said, “every marathon event presents the cultural essence and historical details of the city from track selection to artistic performances along the way to medal and shirt design, it is widely spread through road running events, demonstrating the cultural confidence of Chinese people today.”
Look at the trend: focus on innovation, promote integration, seek quantitative change to qualitative change
looking back on the development of Chinese marathon in the past five years, the surge in quantity is the most obvious change. In 2013, the number of marathon events in China was only 39. By 2018, the number of road running events with more than 800 people nationwide had reached 1581 historically.
With the expansion of the scale of the event, China’s marathon has not only been an event, but also extended to the relevant industrial chain to build a complete business system. “The rapid development of China’s road running movement makes itself present extremely strong industrial value.” Wang Nan said.
According to the public data, the annual total consumption of China Marathon in 2018 reached 17.8 billion yuan, the annual total consumption driven by events reached 28.8 billion yuan, and the annual total output reached 74.6 billion yuan. At the same time, the rapid development of China Marathon also attracted many well-known brands to join in. In 2018, the average sponsorship amount of China Tian Association co-hosted the event reached 4.32 million yuan, “More and more Marathon brands have highlighted huge commercial potential and economic value.”
On the international stage, Marathon also contributes more and more Chinese power. Under the communication mode of “going out, please come in” vigorously promoted by China Association of Athletics, a large number of domestic marathon events have attracted more and more foreign runners to participate in the competition by virtue of high-level competition organizations. At the same time, a large number of high-quality Chinese road running events also actively go abroad to communicate with foreign city marathons.
“Foreign competition companies represented by the World Marathon Grand Slam actively explore cooperation with domestic competitions, and China’s excellent enterprise groups such as Wanda and Ali have also laid out the road running industry one after another.” Wang Nan introduced, “the open development concept of China’s road running movement is pushing the road running movement to present an international, professional and market-oriented development trend.”
Although the development momentum is strong, Wang Nan said frankly that China’s road race is facing a turning point from “quantity surge” to the pursuit of “quality improvement. To this end, Wang Nan said that no matter the event operation company, equipment production enterprise or the association itself, they are constantly seeking to improve the overall quality of Chinese marathon through innovation and development. “I believe that the innovative development concept of all kinds of participants in Chinese road running will surely drive the development of Chinese road running events towards high-quality events.”