体坛英语新闻：IAAF awards "Golden Label Race" to Xiamen International Marathon

XIAMEN, China, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- IAAF, the governing body of world athletics, awarded Xiamen International Marathon "the IAAF Golden Label Race" for the third consecutive years before it kicked off here on Saturday.

    Sean Wallace-Jones, senior manager of IAAF's road running, presented a symbolic plaque of "the IAAF Golden Label Race" to Chen Bingfa, executive president of the organizing committee.

    The 2010 event attracted a record of over 48,000 runners from 35 countries and regions.

    "Xiamen International Marathon has become the model for other marathon races around the world due to its outstanding capability of organizing and market developing," said Jones.

    "The beautiful Xiamen perfectly combines marathon and people's leisure sports, and makes sports deep into the soil of people's daily life".

    Since its inception in 2003, the Xiamen International Marathon has enjoyed great participation of the athletes from around the world.

    "There are no more than 30 marathon races could be awarded 'the Golden Label Race', but Xiamen International Marathon has got it three times within eight years," added Jones.