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September 16, 2014

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Millions race for Shanghai International Marathon places

ALL available places for this year’s Shanghai International Marathon and half-marathon were snapped up in a matter of hours yesterday.

Despite there being just 16,000 slots remaining — 2,000 were allocated to elite runners last week — several million people attempted to register for the annual tests of stamina, organizers said.

The men’s half-marathon was the most popular event, with the website and WeChat application channels closed at 11am, just two hours after opening.

By noon, every spot in the men’s and women’s races had been taken.

Hu Wenfei, a 30-year-old bank worker, said that trying to secure a place in the half-marathon was almost as difficult as running in the race itself.

“I logged on to the website at 9:01am, and was immediately informed I was applicant No. 6,268,” the amateur runner told Shanghai Daily.

“The number didn’t change for a while, so I updated the page and was told there were now 100,000 people before me.”

At 9:30am, Hu refreshed the screen for a third time, only to find there were 480,000 people waiting in line. He said he almost gave up hope, but decided to keep the page open, and at 10am his patience was rewarded and he was granted access to the application page.

An hour later Hu received a notice telling him his place in the 21.1km race, which will start at Chen Yi Square on the Bund on November 2, had been confirmed.

Hu said he was excited about taking part in the race as he had tried but failed to land a spot for last year’s run.

The event organizers told Shanghai Daily that the confusion over the number of people shown to be waiting was due to a glitch in the system, which allocated a new number (at the back of the line) to anyone who clicked the refresh button.

A total of 8,000 people will take part in the 42.2km marathon, with 10,000 others taking part in the half-marathon.

The online registration for both the 10k race (7,000 available places) and 5k health run (10,000 places) starts tomorrow at 9am.

The full and half-marathons will finish at the Shanghai Stadium in Xuhui District, while the 10k run will end at Fuxing Park in Huangpu District. The health run is scheduled to finish at Jing’an Sculpture Park.




 

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