The convention of women's marathon competition in the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, August 17, witnessed Romanian Constantina Tomescu emerge as the winner. It took her 2 hours 26.44 minutes to cross the finishing line and bag the gold medal. ‘It was a great performance. I'm very happy to win a medal, but especially the gold. At the World Championships in Canada (2005 World Half-Marathon Championships), everybody said I couldn't run, but I showed today what I can do,’ remarked Tomescu.
The proud Romanian added that it felt great to have won gold. Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba won the silver medal in the woman’s marathon by clocking 2 hours 27.06 minutes. The bronze went to Zhou Chunxiu of China, who ran a time of 2 hours 27.07 minutes. The world record of 2 hours 15.25 minutes was set by Paula Radcliffe of Great Britain in this event in 2003.
