The Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) announced here on Monday that 2 amateur runners will be selected to take part in the marathon race of 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The CAA released a plan called "Run for Olympics" at the China marathon annual conference that reserves two qualifying berths for amateurs, one male runner and one female runner.
According to the IAAF, each team can send (at most) 3 men and 3 women racers to marathon competitions at the Olympic Games.
There are two ways for amateurs to join the "Run for Olympics" selection, either the results or the rankings. The plan welcomes all the male runners faster than 2:19:00 and female runners with results better than 2:45:00.
And the top ten runners, both in men and women's group of IAAF golden label races, also have the chance to fight for the Olympics berths. China has now 4 golden label races, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Dongying.
Du Zhaocai, the CAA vice president, told Xinhua the plan will be carried out this year, starting from IAAF World Championships in London. Any professional athlete registering in CAA will not be included in the selection plan.
"All the results and rankings from 2017 to 2020 will be taken into consideration," said Du, "I believe the plan will encourage many runners to run for their best and it will attract more people to join the sport."
