The Guangzhou Marathon is an annual

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

race held in December in the city of

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, since 2012. The marathon is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by

World Athletics World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

History

The event was first held on 18 November 2012. Two people died during the event: a 21-year-old male student died after completing the 10 km race and a 25 year old real estate agent collapsed before completing the 5 km race. In 2015, Sentayehu Merga Ejigu crossed the finish line first with a course record time of 2:09:57, but was later disqualified for failing an in-competition

drug test A drug test (also often toxicology screen or tox screen) is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or saliva, oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent ...

.https://web.archive.org/web/20201218060423if_/https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/downloads/pdfs/disciplinary-process/en/Feb-2019-Sanctions-List-Full.pdf#page=6 This led to the promotion of the second runner to cross the finish line, Abdellah Tagharrafet, to first place. He too had broken the course record, with a time of 2:10:01, but he too was later disqualified for doping.https://web.archive.org/web/20201218054755if_/https://www.worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=76b0498e-4c44-4d5d-aa11-50c0cb58b18f.pdf&urlslug=Doping+sanctions+-+News+187 As a result, the third runner to cross the finish line, Ethiopian Raji Assefa, was then promoted to first place. In 2019, Gebretsadik Abraha Adihana won the men's race with a time of 2:08:04 and Hiwot Gebrekidan won the women's race with a new course record of 2:23:50. In 2020, during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, only runners who resided in areas of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan that were deemed to be at low risk for the virus were allowed to participate. In addition, the marathon was the only distance offered that year. A year later, the 2021 Guangzhou Marathon was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2024, Gebise Debele won the men's race with a new course record of 2:06:28 and Anchialem Haymanot won the women's race with a time of 2:25:13.

Guangzhou Huangpu Marathon

A separate marathon is also held in

Huangpu, Guangzhou Huangpu, alternately romanized as Whampoa, is one of 11 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province, China. Despite its name, it does not include Huangpu Island (now Pazhou) or its famou ...

later in December. As of 2024, while the Guangzhou Marathon is a Gold label World Athletics race, the Guangzhou Huangpu Marathon is only classified as Elite level.

Course

Beginning at

Tianhe Stadium Tianhe Stadium (), officially Tianhe Sports Centre Stadium (), is a multi-purpose stadium in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. It is currently used for football matches. History Construction of the stadium began on 4 July 1984 at ...

, the marathon initially heads south to the

Pearl River The Pearl River (, or ) is an extensive river system in southern China. "Pearl River" is often also used as a catch-all for the watersheds of the Pearl tributaries within Guangdong, specifically the Xi ('west'), Bei ('north'), and Dong ( ...

. The course then largely runs along both sides of the river, with the rest of the first half mostly either on or east of the Liede Bridge, and most of the rest of the second half west of the bridge. The last few kilometres are run on Ersha Island and Haixinsha Island before entering Huacheng Square for the finish.

Winners

Key: Course record (in bold)

By country

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{Marathons in China Marathons in China Sports competitions in Guangzhou Autumn in China