After running for 2 hours 6 minutes and 32 seconds, Samuel Wansiru, from Kenya won the Men's marathon in Olympic record time. He ran the marathon along bright blue skies in Beijing. This was one of the final events in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.Just a few weeks ago, the constant question and speculation over the air quality in Beijing was circulating in the western media. How would the bad air effect the athletes? Will China's efforts to have blue skies for the games work? Will athletes come to China and not compete because of the air?
No matter what happened, everyone always said that distance runners wouldn't break any records since they would have the most exposure to polluted air when competing.
Just as the Olympics is coming to a close, this issue of Beijing air quality has been almost entirely forgotten about. Very few articles about the air quality were written after the Olympics actually started.
Not only was the marathon ran under blue skies, but for the majority of the games have been competed in favorable weather. Beginning with the rain-less opening ceremonies to the splendor of the final day, the Olympics have been an overwhelming success.
Note: Wansiru's record in the marathon wasn't just a new Olympic record, but was one of the top 10 times this year for the marathon.
No comments:
Post a Comment