Roller skiers started the Beijing City Marathon

The biggest city marathon in China, the Beijing Marathon, took place with a starting field of more than 30,000 runners. The race was also started by 100 roller skiers in colourful costumes, who paced the race for the first 4 km. The arrangement reflects Chinese commitment to promote the Cross-Country Skiing and Winter Sports in China.

Beijing has hosted its city marathon 38 times and there are almost 1,000  marathons across China during the year. It was, however, the first time that roller skiers were leading a marathon. Beijing Marathon is the only marathon event broadcast live on the biggest sports TV channel in China - CCTV5 with and at least 50 million viewers watched it.

Contributed by Abraham Wang, Swix China