SINGAPORE, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China's Cheng He finished fourth in the second leg of The Greatest Race on Earth (GROE) by coming 18 overall in today's Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. The 20 year-old completed the course in 2:29:54 moving his team up one place into third position of the North East Asia and Rest of The World category of GROE.
In the women's challenge Xue Wu crossed the line in seventh place in GROE which was 24 overall in the marathon. The result dropped her team down a place into second position in the North East Asia and Rest of The World category.
The Singapore Marathon was the second leg of the four marathon series, which started in Nairobi in October. Following Singapore, GROE moves on to Mumbai in January, before finishing in Hong Kong in February.
Cheng He commented, "I am so happy to have won first place for my GROE region today. Winning first for the regional category will make it easier for my team mates in the next two races and give us a chance at improving our joint time.
"On a personal level I didn't actually perform as well as I had expected -- this was my first time running in Singapore and I found it a really challenging race because of the heat and humidity. It's also a very twisty course which I found quite difficult to run through."
GROE sees 23 men's and 13 women's international teams competing for a $1 million prize fund. Teams of four runners each take part in one marathon, with the winning team being the one with the quickest cumulative time.
China's men's team consists of Shouquan Wang (Nairobi), Shuai Yuan (Mumbai) and Meng Li (Hong Kong), while the women's team consists of Lulu Li (Nairobi), Xin Zhang (Mumbai) and Fengxia Yang (Hong Kong).
Also taking part in the series is a Visually Impaired All-Stars team, including Paralympic marathon gold medallist Qi Shun, who will run in Hong Kong to raise awareness and funds for Seeing is Believing.
Footage will be transmitted via APTN on Sunday 7th December at 0915-0930 GMT and 1215-1230 GMT.
For more information, including downloadable footage visit:
http://video360.world-television.com/GROE/SING2008-cn.html or http://www.thegreatestrace.com
For more information, please contact:
Selina Vanier
Tel: +44-207-388-8555
Email: Selina.vanier@world-television.com
