27 Athletes Hit World Athletics Elite Standard; Zhu Qing and Huang…

Earlier, Paoye published the Chinese athletes who have met the World Athletics marathon Gold Label, and there are five in total. The three women listed are Zhang Deshun, Wu Bing, and Li Zhixuan. The two men are Feng Peiyou and Yang Shaohui.

According to World Athletics' Label Road Race Regulations, apart from Platinum and Gold label races, Elite Label races also require at least five athletes of each gender to meet the qualifying standard.

Gold and Platinum labels mainly consider world points and rankings; the Elite Label is judged primarily on performances.

Performance standards for Elite Label athletes:

Between 2024 and 2026, at least one result from a World Athletics‑certified event within the three‑year period must meet the respective standard, with the men's marathon 2:10:52 within, and the women's marathon 2:30:17 within.For the half marathon, the men's time must be within 1:01:48, and the women's requirement is within 1:10:44. (Equivalent to approximately 1115 points on the 2025 edition of the World Athletics Outdoor Scoring Table.)

According to the marathon qualifying standards,In the past three years, 11 Chinese men have met the qualifying standard, He Jie at the 2024 Wuxi Marathon ran a national record of 2:06:57,and in 2025 in Tokyo again ran a time of 2:07:20, and he remains the top Chinese runner. Many athletes have recorded qualifying times across multiple races, so this list uses each athlete's best result from the past three years.

On the women's side, 16 athletes met the elite standard.

The most notable among them are the mass runners Zhu Qing and Huang Xuemei.

Huang Xuemei ran the fastest mass women's time at the 2025 Dongying Marathon. With her recent 50 km victory at the Hong Kong 100, Huang has become another example of an athlete successfully competing in both trail running and road running, and she is not from a formal professional athletics background.

However, at this year's Chongqing Marathon, Zhu Qing's victory once again pushed forward the standard for women's mass marathon performances—her 2:28:53 also earned her the title of the new top woman among the mass field.

With the elite tag added, take a look at the athlete entry requirements for World Athletics labeled races:

Gold-label events: at least 4 Gold-label athlete slots per gender. Up to 3 elite-standard results are allowed to substitute for 1 Gold-label athlete, so the final composition could be per gender 3 (Gold-label) + 3 (elite standard).

Platinum-label events: per gender 3 Platinum-label + 4 Gold-label. Similarly, among Gold-label athletes at most 1 may be replaced by 3 elite-standard results, so the final composition could be per gender 3 (Platinum) + 3 (Gold) + 3 (elite standard).

Under this standard, for China's running ecosystem, this may be a very important signal.World Athletics' elite-standard rule gives mass runners the possibility of being taken seriously at an institutional level. As long as results are genuine and races are compliant, status will not be an absolute barrier.

In the new year, whether professional athletes or recreational runners, performances are bound to surge again, and we look forward to the emergence of China's first Platinum Label athlete.

Text: xx / Editor:xx

Image:Trail Running Explosion / Visuals: Five-YearTrainee

RUNYEAH 跑野大爆炸

27 Athletes Hit World Athletics Elite Standard; Zhu Qing and Huang Xuemei Included