Ethiopian and local runners share Beijing Marathon titles

Ethiopian runner Tariku Jufar Robi shrugged off the difficulties posed by cold weather and claimed the title of the men's competition at 2012 Beijing Marathon while local female runners continue their dominance in the annual event with Jia Chaofeng leading a 1-9 finish in the women's event here on Sunday.

The low temperature on Sunday posed a great difficulty to the runners with the wind blowing fiercely and the highest temperature being 8 centigrade.

But the 28-year-old Jufar Robi who won the 2012 Houston Marathon with a personal best time of 2:06:51, dealt well with the weather. Wearing a hat and a T-shirt below his running vest, Jufar Robi clocked 2:09:39 to cross the finishing line first.

Eliud Kiptanui of Kenya finished second in 2:10:15 while Solomon Molla Tiemuay also from Ethiopia settled with the third place in 2:10:20.

Jufar Robi insisted it was a good competition in spite of the chill while Kiptanui said the cold weather affected everyone and that the only thing to do is to live with it.

The hosts best performance in the men's competition was given by Yin Shunjin, who finished sixth in 2:12:30.

Compared with the lackluster performance of their countrymen, Chinese female runners enjoyed a comfortable dominance in the women's event, sweeping the top nine positions in the race.

The 24-year-old Jia Chaofeng, who represented China in the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu and finished 15th, won the women's race with a career best of 2:27:40. It was the second international marathon title claimed by Jia who always wearing a pair of glass during training and racing because of shortsightedness as she also won the Lanzhou International Marathon in 2011.

China's Sun Lamei trailed 15 seconds behind to finish second while the bronze medal went to another local runner Sun Weiwei, who clocked 2:28:03.

"I usually trained in Qinghai and Gansu province, which are both very cold in winter, so I guess I am used to the coldness," said Jia. "My coach often told me that a good runner should be able to cope with all kinds of weather and I am happy because I did that today."

Jia's gold winning feat extended China's overwhelming record in the women's event of Beijing Marathon as it was the 21st straight title won by Chinese women since 1992.