World champion to take Xiamen race as training

XIAMEN, Fujian province: Reigning women's marathon world champion Bai Xue will take the 2010 Xiamen International Marathon as a training session and will not finish the full 42.195km course, organizers said on Friday.

As introduced by national team officials, the Xiamen Marathon, scheduled for Saturday morning, will be part of the Chinese runner's workout for winter training camp, which also includes Bai's teammates Zhu Xiaolin and Sun Weiwei, all of whom will only take part in the 5km race.

"There were too many races last year and I'm still adjusting my form right now, so I won't finish the full course here," said Bai, who claimed the only gold medal for China at the 2009 World Championships.