This Sunday the 2026 Yangzhou Half Marathon will gun off. The race is a "three-in-one" event: the Yangzhou Half Marathon, the 4th East Asian Half Marathon Championships and the Grand Canal Marathon Series (Yangzhou stop) will all start on March 29, 2026. The field is stacked with top talent — among domestic athletes there are several recent hot-form champions and record-breakers who will vie in the Yangzhou Half Marathon and the East Asian Half Marathon Championships. In the Yangzhou half, national record-holder Feng Peiyou showed very strong form in both the Tokyo and Wuxi full marathons; despite a heavy competition load, whether he can adjust in time to set a new PB at the half is worth watching. Jiang Fakun and Xiao Zhaxi Ciren are his biggest rivals this time. Among domestic women, Ciren Cuomu leads with a PB of 69:37. Li Zhixuan, who posted strong results at the Tokyo Marathon and Shanghai Half Marathon this year, and Zheng Xiaoqian, who set a full-marathon PB in Osaka last month, will join the battle for the domestic title. On the international side, this year's Dongma runner-up Geofry KIPCHUMBA will face Alex MATATA — who secured back-to-back Renshou Half Marathon victories this month and is the defending Yangzhou Half champion — and this year's Shangbanma champion Solomon YEGO. On the women's side, Ftaw ZERAY, who won the Paris Half Marathon earlier this month in a PB of 1:05:12, will contest the title with Wede KEFALE (who ran 1:05:21 in her debut half) and Ruti AGA, who has taken two consecutive platinum-label victories this year at the Xiamen and Renshou Half Marathons. For the East Asian Half Marathon Championships, Wuxi Marathon breakthrough performers Mao Jinh u, Ma Wenliang and Zhao Lei, Li Meizhen — who has jumped to second among active runners — and Liang Tiantian and Xu Shuangshuang, who captured titles this month at Renshou and Shangbanma respectively, will all take part. They will represent China against athletes from other countries and regions. Fifteen athletes from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan will compete in the East Asian Half Marathon Championships. And in February's All-Japan Corporate Half Marathon, Japanese runner Taiga Hirayama won in 1:00:44 and is in strong form. This Sunday in Yangzhou's "Battle of the Gods," whose performance are you most looking forward to? #跑野大爆炸 #扬州半马 #跑步 #马拉松 #毛金虎 #丰配友 #次仁措姆 #李芷萱 #郑小倩 #李美珍 #梁田田 #许双双