China run India off the running map

From Womens Marathon at Berlin World Championships 2009: Xue Bai wins

As results come in from the Womens marathon at the World Athletics Championships at Berlin, it looks like China has come out on tops overall with some great finishes to take up the team world cup, while Japan and Russia came second and third respectively.

It was Xue Bai who won the event, with a time of 2:25:15, and topped a strong performance from China, with as many as 4 Chinese in the top-13 results. It was quite a close finish, unlike the Mens marathon yesterday, with runner up Yoshimi Ozaki from Japan just 2:25:25 giving Xue a fight all the way.Aselefech Mergia from Ethiopia was third not too far behind in 2:25:32, and was infact leading T THE 40KM point of the race.

Interestingly, as many as 24 runners were bunched together at the half-way point, which was reached in 1:13:39, which included the other fancied runners Dire Tune and Bezunesh Bekele from Ethiopia. The much fancied Kara Goucher from the US was a dissapointing 10th placed in 2:27:48

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Where are the Indian women athletes hiding? Chinese women are competitive with the best of the world.