Flowers, media greet world champion

Bai Xue, the newly-crowned women's marathon world champion, received a hero's welcome when she arrived back in Beijing yesterday.

Returning from her triumphant performance at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, the 20-year-old Bai was greeted with flowers and by a throng of media at the Beijing Capital International Airport.

"I'm very tired after sitting on the flight for eight hours and I'm not used to meeting so many people," a surprised Bai said, holding her gold medal and marathon team World Cup, which was earned with teammates Zhou Chunxiu, Zhu Xiaolin and Sun Weiwei, who finished fourth, fifth and 13th respectively at the Worlds.