Hangzhou, China, October 5, 2023: He Jie claimed China’s first men’s marathon gold at an Asian Games, and then wished his landmark victory would spark an upsurge in the popularity of marathon running in the country.
He, 24, brought the curtain down on the athletics events at the Hangzhou Asian Games by winning the men’s marathon gold completing the 42.195km course skirting the Qiantang River Green Belt in Hangzhou in two hours 13 minutes and 2 seconds.
“I hope more people will participate in this wonderful sport and that my medal will give a much-needed boost to marathon running,” He noted.
In the women’s race, Eunice Paul Chumba of Bahrain won the gold medal with a time of 2:26:14. China’s Zhang Deshun finished in 2:27:55 to take the silver and the bronze medal went to Sardana Trofimova of Kyrgyzstan who clocked her season best of 2:28:41.
It is the first time that a Chinese runner has won the men’s marathon at the Asian Games, a sport usually dominated by Koreans and Japanese. But while most of Hangzhou slept in, celebrating Golden Week, He wrote his name down in Asian Games history.
He crossed the line 25 seconds ahead of silver medallist Han Il Ryong of DPR Korea, while He’s teammate Yang Shaohui took bronze in 2:13:39.
“As long as you have a pair of running shoes you can run on the road, or in the countryside, or on a track. I hope the entire society and the sporting community will embrace marathon running,” said He, who joined the national squad only two years ago.
The field of 18 runners were bunched together for the first 30km before He and Han made a break. With just 2km to go, the pair were well clear of the chasing pack and, with the end near, He determinedly pushed himself to breast the tape first.
“I had a lot of emotions going through my mind when I won the gold medal. I dared to dream, and if you do it with determination and grit, you can accomplish the dream. My whole focus this past year has been on winning this gold medal and knowing that 1.4 billion of my countrymen will be watching.
“From the start of the race, my mind-set was to fight hard and my goal was to set records and to let everyone know that we (Chinese) can also compete in the marathon, win Asian Games gold, meet Olympic standards, and stand at the starting point of the Olympics,” He added.
He had accomplished all that by the end of the race – his time, which was a new national record, met Olympic qualifying standards. He had won the Asian Games gold, and was the first Chinese male runner to do so.
“I believe once we start believing that we can be competitive in marathon running, more runners will participate and be able to break records. This performance will certainly boost my confidence and I will try to improve further,” He added.
