Asian Games: Weather slows Zhou in marathon

Gold medalist Zhou Chunxiu of China races to a win in the women's marathon at the Asian Games in Doha yesterday. PHOTO: AP

The course was repetitive and the weather not helpful. That combined yesterday for a very ordinary winning performance from Zhou Chunxiu in the women's marathon at the Asian Games.

Zhou completed the seaside Corniche course -- where the runners compete over the same loop four times until just before the finish -- in 2 hours, 27 minutes and three seconds.

That was nearly 12 minutes behind Paula Radcliffe's world-best time of 2:15.25 set in London in 2003, and eight minutes behind the Asian record held by Japan's Mizuki Noguchi.

Zhou blamed the conditions.

"The weather was not good; it was really windy," Zhou said, adding that she thought the course was "absolutely not comfortable -- it made me exhausted."

Two Japanese runners took the other medals -- Kiyoko Shimahara in second in 2:30.34 and Kayoko Obata, who finished just four second behind Shimahara.

Scheduling conflicts from other marathons around this time as qualifiers for next year's world championships meant that the race attracted only 10 runners, nine of whom finished, with Maria Pia Nehme of Lebanon pulling out of the race with an undisclosed injury.

At the athletics stadium, gold medal favorite Olga Tereshkova of Kazakhstan took control in the back straight and led easily over the final 100m in the first heat of the 400m.

She finished in 53.30 seconds, the fastest qualifier for today's final.

Alwaleed Abdulla a Abdulla of Qatar was the fastest qualifier in the men's 100m, setting a personal best of 10.37 seconds despite easing up at the end of his semi-final. East Asian Games champion Hu Kai of China failed to qualify for the final, which is to be held later yesterday.

Most of the attention yesterday was focused on the men's soccer quarter-finals which included a big matchup between North Korea and South Korea.

Winning would be a major prize for either country. The last time the Koreas played each other in soccer was in November last year, and the North won 2-0 in Macau at the East Asian Games.