Rising stars emerge from National Games

Turning professional for only the second year, Renqingdongzhibu took gold in the men's marathon at the National Games with a time of 2:14:26, five seconds ahead of Peng Jianhua, who was the national champion in 5,000m and 10,000m.

Renqingdongzhibu came from West China's Qinghai province. Born in 2000, he used to be a cowherd, running on the prairie with his cows and sheep.

When he turned 16, he entered a sports school and started getting involved in running. He made it to the provincial team in 2018 and started to train as a professional athlete.

In 2020, Renqingdongzhibu started to compete in marathon and finished sixth in Xuzhou Marathon in April 2021, in which Peng Jianhua was the champion.

Only five months after the defeat, the 20-year-old came back stronger at the National Games and beat the champion who used to be way ahead.