You're all mighty warriors in this game!

Since the Autumn Equinox, Xi'an has been covered by the misty rain with a little bit of coldness, which resonates with the old saying "as an autumn rain comes, another round of coldness arrives".

A special marathon race exerted quite some touching moments in the pouring rain yesterday, which is the last track and field event of the 14th National Games. The rain and sweat truly contributed unparalleled highlights to the race, within which every athlete demonstrated their willpower, courage and perseverance, they deserve the highest respect and applause.

On the morning of September 26, with the clear sound of the starting gun, the marathon race of the 14th National Games officially started at Yongning Gate. Athletes from 21 provincial teams rushed out to compete for final medal on the city track of Xi'an.

Various landmarks and historical sites of Xi'an can be captured along the racing route, with Yongning Gate the starting point, and the finishing line was set up in the Xi'an Olympic Sports Center.

After more than two hours of competition in the rain, Zhang Deshun from Yunnan Province won the women’s marathon in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 31 seconds. Renqing Dongzhibu from Qinghai Province finished in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 26 seconds, winning the men's marathon championship.

Born in 2000, Renqing was just a herding boy in last racing cycle, who has not even entered a sports school yet, his growing curve in sports is impressively short. Based only on three marathon races in Nanjing, Guangzhou and Xuzhou during his career, he has become the champion of the National Games in his fourth game, which is indeed daunting.

On April 11, 2021, Zhang Deshun won the 2021 National Marathon Championship (Xuzhou Station) & Olympic Marathon Trial Women’s Championship with the record 2 hours, 29 minutes and 11 seconds, also qualified to represent the Chinese team in the Tokyo Olympic Marathon, which is only the third marathon race in her sports career.

The rising of the youngsters, the unstoppable speed of the country!

Upon the finishing of this marathon race, all track and field events of the 14th National Games also came to an end. The game truly scaled the ancient capital Xi'an with 42.195 km in wind and rain. 57 runners carried the faith of their provincial teams, representing the top level of Chinese marathon athletics.

According to statistics, the number of registered middle and long-distance running athletes in China in 2021 is 5,160, an increase of 1031 from the 4,129 in 2020, of which as many as 2,194 are newly registered athletes. In 2019, there were about 1,900 marathon road races with a scale of more than 800 contestants nationwide, and the accumulated number of participants reached 7.2 million.