Feng Peiyou (front) competes in the men's 10,000m at the 2024 National Athletics Championships race in Quzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, on September 16, 2024. File photo: VCG

At the recent Tokyo Marathon in Japan, the first World Marathon Major event of 2026, Chinese runner Feng Peiyou shook off a bleeding nose and cramped leg to finish first among all Asian runners, with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes and 58 seconds. 

His performance also broke the Chinese men's marathon national record of 2:06:57, opening a new chapter for Chinese marathon running. Hailing from Southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feng shaved the previous record by 59 seconds to become the first Chinese athlete to run under two hours and six minutes in a full marathon. 

Feng told the Global Times on Wednesday that he felt quite well during the race, but he did not expect to break the national record set by He Jie in 2024. Lowering the record by 59 seconds came as a pleasant surprise to him. 

This marked the first time a Chinese runner has defeated all Japanese competitors at the Tokyo Marathon.

This year's Tokyo Marathon featured many top Japanese runners, including Japanese national record holder Suguru Osako, as well as Hashimoto Ryuichi and Kengo Suzuki, making the China-Japan showdown one of the race's major highlights. 

Feng, 25, overtook Hashimoto at the 32-kilometer mark, and in the final sprint engaged in a fierce duel with Osako. In the end, he edged out the Japanese runner by one second and finished 11th.

Feng recalled that the dry weather in Tokyo caused him to have a nosebleed around the 20-kilometer mark, but he had no time to worry about it. "At the 41-kilometer mark, Osako caught up with me, but I gritted my teeth. I had to hold on and fight through," he said.

"This race has given me a lot of confidence. I feel that I'm not that far behind Asia's top runners. It made me feel that nothing is impossible," he noted.

This result marks an important milestone in Feng's professional career and reflects the rapid development of marathon running in China in recent years, alongside the steady rise in competitive standards, according to a report by the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA). 

Following He Jie setting a national record at the 2024 Wuxi Marathon, Feng has once again delivered an outstanding performance on the world stage, showcasing the fighting spirit and relentless pursuit of breakthroughs among Chinese athletes, as well as the growing depth of talent in Chinese marathon running. 

Turning point

The mountains and highlands of Guizhou witnessed the growth of this young runner. As a boy, the six-kilometer mountainous journey he traveled to and from school every day forged his unyielding will and exceptional endurance.

"I started from long distance running but didn't get noteworthy results at the beginning. "I started focusing on the marathon at the age of 20, simply with the mindset of giving it a try," Feng said. 

Winning the 2022 Xiamen Marathon in East China's Fujian Province remains the most unforgettable race of his career. That victory opened a new door for Feng.

"Before that, I didn't have the courage or confidence to compete with the top runners in China. But in Xiamen, I proved my strength and ability, which greatly boosted my confidence. It became a turning point in my life, and since then my marathon times have steadily improved," Feng said. 

At the 2024 Valencia Marathon 2024, Feng finished with a time of 2:07:06, but he was not satisfied with the result. His fourth-place finish at the 2025 National Games in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area also left some regret. However, these races provided him with valuable experience and helped him identify areas for improvement.

"For a long time, maintaining pace after the 30-kilometer mark has been Feng's weak point. After his setback at the National Games, our team designed a targeted training plan focusing on improving his endurance in the second half of the race. The result in Tokyo proves that our training has been successful," Feng's coach Zou Leilei told Eyesnews.cn, a news app operated by Guizhou Daily. 

A big leap 

For a marathon runner, improving the national record by 59 seconds is an extraordinary achievement. It means maintaining an average pace of under 2 minutes and 59 seconds per kilometer throughout the entire marathon - a pace typically sustained by professional middle- and long-distance track athletes, Li Ge, a sports commentator, told CCTV News. 

But Feng is not running 3,000 or 5,000 meters; he covers the full marathon. To maintain such an ideal and exceptionally high pace over such a long distance is far from easy, Li said. 

According to an annual national road race report published by CAA in March 2025, registration for marathon events across the country has continued to rise. Throughout 2024, a total of 749 road running events at various levels were held nationwide, attracting over 7 million entries, an increase of 1 million compared with 2023. The 2025 report has not yet been released.

Runners' performance levels have also improved significantly. In certified races, more than 18,000 runners recorded marathon times of three hours or faster, the report said. 

Since 2023, the national marathon record has successively been broken by Yang Shaohui, He Jie and Feng, marking a steady rise of Chinese long-distance runners.

"Healthy competition with my teammates has helped Chinese marathon running take a big step forward. I hope more young runners will achieve even better results in the future. I want to challenge the Asian record of 2:04:43 in the future," said Feng.