BEIJING: The man who inspired the country’s very first marathon by setting a record at that distance in China has died at 95.
Zhang Liangyou, who initiated China’s first marathon race, passed away in Yizheng county, Jiangsu province on Monday, Jianghuai Morning Post reported, citing Wei Pulong, director of the Hefei marathon association.
Zhang’s story sparked discussion online among marathon lovers and some believed the ongoing marathon craze in China is owed to Zhang’s founding effort.
In 1956, 29-year-old Zhang wrote to China’s top sports authorities three times suggesting developing marathon events in China.
“I wrote that we were called the ‘sick man of East Asia’ before New China was founded. Now it’s time for us to prove we Chinese can also do what the others can do,” Zhang was cited as saying in the Jianghuai report.
The letters sped up the arrival of marathons in China. In 1957, the first-ever marathon pilot race in the country was held in Feidong county, Anhui province. Zhang set the country’s first marathon record at 2 hours, 52 minutes and 34 seconds for the 42-kilometer distance.
In the early 1950s, Zhang, then a coal miner and running enthusiast from Anhui, began practicing long-distance running. He ran 5 km every day at first, and then 10 km; first jogging, and then faster.
In the decades after, Zhang followed his love for the sport. The Chinese team with Zhang won the group bronze at the world senior marathon championships in Los Angeles in the United States in 1984. He came sixth at the 1988 Beijing marathon, competing against runners from 17 other countries and regions.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
