Today the Chinese Athletics Association officially announced that China has formally established national records for the half marathon and the 10 km road race; previously the official system displayed them as "best performances".
Over the past few years China's road-running performances have surged, and the men's and women's bests in the 10 km and half marathon were all broken. This sparked a long online debate over whether they should be labeled "best performances" or "records."
One possible reason they were not established earlier is that the half marathon and 10 km are not official events at the Olympic Games, World Championships, or National Games, so they did not receive the same level of attention.
However, World Athletics set a 10 km world record category as early as 2003 and established a half marathon world record in 2004; it had previously marked Wang Wenjie's half marathon, Mao Jinhu's 10 km and Zhang Deshun's half marathon as "NR" (national record).
With World Athletics recognition on one side and the domestic association using only "best performances" on the other, this disconnect between international and domestic standards had sparked debate among runners — a debate that can now be put to rest.
Because in the Chinese Athletics Association's latest national-record lookup, the half marathon and 10 km have been officially added.
Currently China's men's10 kmnational record:Mao Jinhu 28:49set at the 2025 Valencia 10 km road race.
China women's 10 km national record:Zhang Deshun 31:54set at the 2025 Chinese Athletics Association 10 km Elite Final.
China men's half marathon national record:Wang Wenjie 1:01:15set at the 2026 Beijing Half Marathon.
China women's half marathon national record:Zhang Deshun 1:07:55 set at the 2024 Meishan Renshou Half Marathon.
Since 2022, when the Chinese Athletics Association standardized the term "marathon" to "road running" and defined standard race distances to include 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, etc., the official inclusion of the 10 km and half marathon in the national records system now marks a further institutional alignment of Chinese road running with international standards.
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