China’s road running also changed from “quantity blowout” at the beginning of development to the coordinated in-depth development of competitive sports, mass participation and road running industry.
Xinhua News Agency, Lanzhou, June 4 (Reporter Zhang Rui, Wen Jing) the 2019 Lanzhou International Marathon has just ended, with more than 40,000 runners from all over the world coming to this Silk Road town to feel the charm of marathon: the ancient and charming Yellow River, the snow-covered Snowland, the verdant forest of vegetation……
In China, there are nearly 10 large-scale marathon events with different characteristics and details running every week, and China’s road race also starts from the “quantity blowout” at the beginning of development “, it is transformed into the coordinated development of competitive sports, mass participation and road running industry.
“I have been running a marathon for 10 years. It can be said that running a marathon 10 years ago is quite chaotic. There are even some people on the runway who don’t even have telephone directory, and there are others who don’t cheat by shortcut according to the route. In recent years, this situation has basically disappeared, and the organizer’s relevant reminder messages and material distribution are very considerate every time they participate in the competition. The organization and management are in place, and the competition experience is very good.” Ma Jia, the contestant of Lanzhou International Marathon in 2019, said.
Nowadays, amateur runners like Ma’s family can also enjoy high-quality road running events, which has become the norm in China. Since 2008, the IAAF has started the certification of global road running signage events. In 11 years, the number of Chinese marathon signage events in IAAF has increased from 2 to 19. The running level and international influence of Chinese marathon events have been continuously improved.
According to Wang Nan, vice chairman of China track and field association, since the first marathon was held in Beijing in 1981, China’s road race has gone through 39 years, which can be roughly divided into three stages: before 1997, it was the first stage. At that time, China’s road race basically served competitive sports, with low public participation. There were no more than 10 national marathon events every year. From 1998 to 2013, it was a reform period, the closing time of the competition was prolonged, the competition was gradually opened to the public, and the number of national events increased to nearly 39.
Since then, it is the third stage. In 2018, China held a total of 1581 road running events with more than 800 people, cross-country running with more than 300 people and other scale events, an increase of 479 from 1102 in 2017, the growth rate reached 43.46 percent. Road running has become one of the favorite sports modes of Chinese people at present.
On May 31, the 2019 International Tian Lian road race conference opened in Lanzhou, which was also the first time that the conference was settled in Asia. The high-quality development of road race in China, undoubtedly, it is an important factor to attract the attention of IAAF.
Alessio Iwaki, the director of international Tian Lian road running affairs, said that in recent years, IAAF has obviously felt the enthusiasm of the Chinese and the Chinese government for marathon events, more and more competitions in China have been successfully applied for IAAF sign events. Sign events will promote organizers to pay more attention to the quality of the events, and at the same time encourage more cities to improve the competition standards.
Although China’s road running movement started late, there is still a gap compared with the countries where marathon market was developed earlier, but this gap is gradually narrowing. As of 2018, in the IAAF signage events, China has ranked first in all countries and regions, regardless of the total amount or the number of gold standard events.
While China, which has a population of nearly 1.4 billion, still has enough space for sports population to be awakened, and the development of road running is full of potential.
Wang Nan said: “In China, more and more road running event operation companies drive the promotion of event service and experience through innovative development; More and more road running equipment production enterprises develop through innovation, bring better professional equipment to Chinese runners. The innovative development concept of all kinds of participants in China’s road race has promoted the development of China’s road race to high quality.”