Berlin- China's Bai becomes youngest ever women's world marathon champion
China's Bai Xue had expected to win a medal but ended up with a historic gold and a record. After 40 kilometers when there were only three left in the leading pack and a medal had already been secured, she decided to fight her heart out for a gold. She then threw her hat away with one kilometers to go, overtaking her only rival Yoshimi Ozaki of Japan and winning the first gold medal for China at the 12th World Athletics Championships.
Temperatures at the start of the race were 19 degrees centigrade and rose to 23 by the finish. A total of 71 athletes started the race with 60 of them finishing. After 32 kilometers, only four remained in contention including Bai, Ozaki, Mergia and Russian Nailya Yulamanova, who was leading and pushing the pace. With three finishers in the top five, China dominated the World Cup race with a combined time of 7:17:02. Japan was second (7:22:15) with Russia (7:24:42) taking the bronze.
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