China's Su Wei is still dreaming of gaining an Olympic place in the men's team for Beijing.
He is hoping to run a big race tomorrow and finish, at least, among the top Asian runners.
While the Asian championships will be held in conjunction with the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, Su knows it will take a supreme effort over a difficult course to have any chance of gaining one of three Chinese Olympic places. He is about four minutes slower than the third-ranked male runner on the mainland. But fourth-ranked Su is still holding out hopes he will improve on his best time of two hours, 14 minutes and 43 seconds, achieved when finishing eighth in the 2006 Xiamen Marathon.
'There's always hope of going to Beijing,' insisted Su. 'I have a good feeling coming to Hong Kong and anything can happen. I could improve on my best time.''
The 26-year-old Su, who has reached the Olympic qualifying mark of two hours and 15 minutes, added: 'The top male runners in China have best times of around two hours and eight minutes and two hours and 10 minutes. I still have a way to go and time is not on my side. But I haven't lost hope of going to the Olympics.
'My aim is to achieve a good time in Hong Kong. Hopefully, it will be good enough to qualify for Beijing. The weather in Hong Kong has been good. I am ready to run a big race.'
