Mongolia's Serod Batochir beat China's Li Zhuhong to win the Good Luck Beijing 2008 marathon men's race, which finished at the National Stadium, known as Bird's Nest, on raining Sunday morning.

  Chinese Chen Rong sprints to win the women's marathon that finished at the National Stadium, known as Bird's Nest, in Beijing, April 20, 2008.

Fifteen minutes later, Chinese runner Chen Rong won the women's marathon, clocking two hours, 30 minutes and 42 seconds.

Batochir clocked a personal best time of two hours, 14 minutes and 15 seconds in a rainy condition with Li Zhuhong crossing the line after two hours 15 minutes and 32 seconds of a run.

Han Gang of China finished the third in the men's race in a time of two hours, 21 minutes and 15 seconds.

The marathon race, shooting off at 7:30am, is one of the Good Luck series test events of the Beijing Olympics, to check the overall planning and various functional operations for the Games in the coming summer.

Participants of the Good Luck Beijing 2008 international marathon race tried the newly announced course for the Beijing Olympic Games marathon race.

The 42.195 km course started at the Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing and finished at the "Bird's Nest", in the Olympic Green in the northern part of the city.

  Serod Batochir of Mongolia sprints to win the Good Luck Beijing 2008 marathon men's race that finished at the National Stadium, known as Bird's Nest, in Beijing, April 20, 2008. Chinese Li Zhuhong won the second, followed by Han Gang.

(Xinhua News Agency, chinadaily.com.cn April 20, 2008)