Marathon effort to stamp out cheats

Kenyan and Ethiopian runners dominated Sunday's Shenzhen International Marathon but perhaps the biggest winners were the organizers, who went to great lengths to ensure a clean race following a major cheating scandal last month.

Three weeks ago, over 250 runners were caught cheating in the Shenzhen Nanshan Half-Marathon - 18 had competed with fake bib numbers, with three running using others' identities given lifetime bans from the event. Another 237 participants, most of whom had taken shortcuts, were banned for two years.

Organizers had vowed to avoid a repeat of such unseemly incidents in Sunday's race, which featured over 30,000 participants and was won by Kenya's Edwin Kipngetich Koech in two hours nine minutes and 44 seconds. Mulu Seboka Seyfu of Ethiopia took the women's title (2:27:12) and Zhang Zhenlong was the best-placed Chinese in 10th (2:20:43).