Beijing Marathon is Cancelled This Weekend

The Beijing Marathon is cancelled this weekend. The running race in the Chinese capital is cancelled “to prevent the risk of spreading the coronavirus”.

 

The announcement comes more than three months before the Winter Games, which will start in Beijing in 102 days. The Games start on February 4. About 30,000 runners would participate in Beijing on Sunday, October 31. The Wuhan marathon was cancelled last weekend.

The Chinese government is pursuing a ‘zero-covid strategy’. As a result, the country is largely in control of the coronavirus with curfews, extensive testing programs, contact tracings, strict quarantine rules, and strict entry restrictions.

Recently, however, despite the strict measures, there has been a series of local outbreaks of the Delta variant.

Following the Summer Games in Tokyo earlier this year, no foreign spectators are welcome at the Winter Games next year. However, according to the International Olympic Committee, fans from mainland China can attend the games but must meet conditions to be determined.