China's Sun Yingjie retained her crown at the Beijing International Marathon yesterday with a solid if unspectacular win which will boost her confidence after a disappointing display at the Athens Olympics.
Kenya's James Moiben won the men's marathon in two hours, 10 minutes and 42 seconds.
Wearing the national red livery and cheered on enthusiastically by thousands spectators at the roadside, Sun led through much of the race, which started bright and early at 8.31am from the Forbidden City in Tiananmen Square.
'I feel very excited about winning the race. I was very disappointed when I got back from Athens, but now I will start to prepare for the 2008 Games in Beijing,' she said.
With her trademark duck-like running style, Sun pulled away in the final section of the race to win in 2:24:11.
The time was well off her personal best of 2:19:39 which she notched up in last year's race to make her history's third fastest woman over the full marathon - only Briton Paula Radcliffe and Kenya's Catherine Ndereba have run faster.
