The Xiamen International Marathon, which first began in 2003, is an annual marathon held in January in the coastal city of Xiamen in the Fujian province in People's Republic of China. The marathon is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race, famous for its scenic coastal race route.
The Xiamen International Marathon became the first marathon to join the Clean Seas campaign, adopting rigorous and far-reaching methods to keep future running events pollution-free. Every year, the Xiamen Marathon scales up its circular economy model to showcase that a healthy lifestyle through outdoor exercise can only be achieved in a clean environment. For instance, marathon organizers, pledged to reduce plastic waste by 60 per cent, while banning single use plastic bottles.
Participants, spectators, organizers and all sports enthusiasts are encouraged to communicate and adopt the Xiamen Marathon’s sustainability message: the usage of single-use plastic products, both on race days and in your everyday life, should be stopped. Single-use plastic products might only be in your hands for a few minutes, but they will remain in our environment forever. Furthermore, our global community must go a step further to innovate design, production, and business models to ensure that plastic products are reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and free of toxic additives.
Through collective action we can make a difference across the sport industry to #BeatPlasticPollution for #CleanSeas.
Chasing the light, The theme song of Xiamen Marathon. pic.twitter.com/aUUa1jvjCA
— Xiamen Marathon (@XiamenMarathon) November 18, 2021
2022 Xiamen Marathon Updates
Originally scheduled for April 10th, 2022, the Xiamen International Marathon was postponed due to COVID concerns. The race has since been rescheduled for November 27th, 2022.
28,000 runners competed in the 2022 edition of the Xiamen Marathon on the 27th of November. Feng Peiyou became the men’s winner and set a new personal record of 2:13:53 and Li Jingfen won the gold medal in 2:36:14. The Clean Seas campaign was well advertised and promoted throughout the event's race course.
Update: The 2023 Xiamen Marathon will be regularly scheduled, kicking off on January 2, 2023.
