Beijing marathon will go ahead despite smog, official insists
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 18 October, 2014, 4:06am
UPDATED : Saturday, 18 October, 2014, 4:06am
Stephen Chen [email protected]
The Beijing International Marathon will go ahead as planned tomorrow, despite the heavy smog enveloping the capital, a race official has said.
Parts of northern China are expected to suffer "moderate to severe" pollution at least until Monday, the national weather bureau has forecast.
The National Meteorological Centre said parts of the north could see levels of PM2.5 - superfine particles considered the most dangerous to health - above 450 micrograms per cubic metre. The US Environmental Protection Agency considers a level of 300 or more hazardous.
The air quality index in the capital yesterday rose to just over 130 - or "slightly polluted" - at 2pm. The US embassy gave a reading of 177, which US health authorities deem unhealthy and cause to avoid prolonged activity outdoors.
The marathon is one of China's biggest athletic events. The race, from Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest National Stadium, is open to 26,000 participants. Jeffrey Eggleston, a top US runner, and Xu Fei, a popular singer on the mainland, are taking part this year.
A staff member at the official registration office for the race said the event would "definitely" begin on schedule, regardless of the smog.
"But we will do our best to give the participants health advice and guidelines," she said.
Advice and contingency measures were still being drawn up and organisers would release them before the 8am start tomorrow, she added.
Zhang Fanghua, a forecaster with the National Meteorological Centre, said the pollution levels would have a "negative" effect on the race.
Tianjin , Shanghai and Nanjing have also been affected by higher pollution levels this week, and in Hunan , organisers of a wingsuit competition - an event similar to base-jumping - were forced to cancel a practice session on Thursday.
"Today's situation is very bad," Iiro Seppanen, race director of the World Wingsuit League China Grand Prix, was quoted by the China News Service as saying.
"If the landing zone and the whole flying track cannot be seen clearly, the flight must be banned."
Twenty-six competitors have been invited to the event at the scenic Tianmen Mountain. The contests were scheduled to begin yesterday, with the finals to be held tomorrow.
The Hunan provincial capital, Changsha , was the most polluted major city on the mainland yesterday, with the air quality index exceeding 330 as of 1pm, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Hunan's provincial government said in a meeting on the problem on Thursday that the biggest contributors to smog in the region were cars. Vehicle exhaust and emissions from factories accounted for nearly half of all air pollutants in the province.
Beijing next month hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and the municipal government has announced measures it hopes will ease pollution and traffic congestion, including a six-day holiday for some civil servants, and allowing drivers to use their cars only on alternate days. Traffic authorities expect the measure to cut congestion by 35 per cent.
