International marathon draws 35,000 runners to Shijiazhuang

Sports, culture, and international friendship converged on Sunday in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province, for the 2026 Shijiazhuang Marathon.

More than 200,000 applicants registered for spots. The final lineup of 35,000 runners from 35 countries and regions, including Singapore, the United States, and Kenya, gathered at Jiefang Square. Marathon icon Eliud Kipchoge attended and cheered on the runners alongside Chinese Olympic gold medalists.

Greek Ambassador to China Evgenios Kalpyris, together with other dignitaries, fired the starting pistol for the race, underscoring the ancient Greek origins of long-distance running and the strengthening athletic and cultural ties between the two nations.

A local cultural square hosted a three-day expo in the lead up to the marathon. It gathered 64 brands and showcased intangible cultural heritage, including paper-cutting and iron plate relief. A marathon culture exhibit traced the sport's origins, Olympic heritage, and Hebei's athletic development.

Ambassador Kalpyris inaugurated the Greek exhibit on Saturday. The showcase featured historical photographs and artifacts tracing over 2,800 years of Olympic heritage, from its origins in Ancient Greece, to its modern revival and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kalpyris highlighted the common Olympic traditions uniting Greece and China, noting the enduring value and universal symbolism of the marathon as demonstrated by the Shijiazhuang event.

"In ancient Greece, faith in humanity, equality, brotherhood and peace for the whole world, along with the spirit of companionship and noble competition, shaped the athletic ideal, which was remarkably expressed in the Olympic Games," he said.

Speaking to China Daily, the ambassador hailed Shijiazhuang's beauty and hospitality, saying the city demonstrated a real athletic, Olympic, and marathon spirit.

"The spirit in our modern days is very important, because people need to go back to the basic principles in life and evaluate what really matters," he said, adding that the Olympic exhibition is "only one of our efforts to bring our cultures and peoples together".

After Beijing, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Fenyang in Shanxi province, Shijiazhuang marked the fifth stop of the Greek exhibition tour in China, according to the Embassy of Greece in China.

Yuezhi Juelin, Zhao Rixi, and Sun Ke contributed to this story.