Marathon test on the horizon for polluted air

BEIJING (AP) With air quality often two to three times dirtier than what is considered safe in most western countries, running long distances in the Chinese capital can be a health hazard.

The biggest test yet will come Sunday, when women's marathoners will run 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers) from Mao Zedong's mausoleum in Tiananmen Square to the Bird's Nest stadium. The men won't take to the streets of Beijing until Sunday, Aug. 24, the final morning of the games.

Concerns about polluted air kept many of the leading distance runners away until just prior to the race; others wore masks as a precaution during training. But athletes' complaints about the polluted air have been few since the Games began, perhaps because it's considered impolitic to raise the issue.

Peter Baquie, the Australian team's medical director, ranked air pollution well down the list of issues face by the marathoners.

"Some of the girls have expressed concern, but that's coming from northern Africa, not from Beijing," he said. "Heat is the issue, numbers 1-6, then comes drugs. The air is probably No. 73 at this stage."

For men's world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie, the asthmatic Ethiopian who ranks among running's greats, it was issue No. 1. He opted to sit out the marathon and concentrate instead on the 10,000 meters.

But many of the world's top female runners will be on hand Sunday, including Gebreselassie's teammate, Gete Wami, the World Marathon Majors champion who has already won three Olympic medals dating back to Atlanta 1996, and Catherine Ndereba, known as "The Great" in her native Kenya, who won silver at Athens four years ago and has won gold-silver-gold at the last three World Championships.

Both were among the late arrivals to China this week, while world record-holder Paula Radcliffe, who is defying medical advice to compete despite recent hip and thigh injuries, has done her final tuning up in Macau with the rest of the British team.

"A week or two weeks is not enough time to adjust anyway," said Gebeyaw Takele, Ethiopia's Chef de Mission. "That's why they're arriving late."

Radcliffe is eager to make amends for the bitter disappointment of her tearful exit from the Athens race four years ago, and she's determined to compete despite her limited training and the air conditions.

"It's the Olympics," she said, "so you take a risk on it."

A dense haze has blanketed Beijing much of the past week, but the track and field competition started Friday under blue, sunny skies.

Deena Kastor, who moved from eighth to third in the closing stages of the marathon in Athens to win the United States' first Olympic marathon medal since 1984, was preparing at the U.S. training base in Dalian, on China's coast.

"I am not concerned about the pollution during the race but it will definitely concern me as I recover after," Kastor said. "Post race I plan to eat, sleep and hydrate well in order to better recover."

Defending Olympic champion Mizuki Noguchi of Japan is not competing - she withdrew this week because of an injured left thigh.

The organizers have been touchy about criticism of the air quality, but the truth is that Beijing's air can be typically be two to three times dirtier than what is considered safe by the World Health Organization. On other days, the level of particulate matter can reach 10 times that limit.

China's standards say an air pollution index of 100 or less is acceptable, but the WHO says that healthy air should be 50 or less.

Nonetheless, Chinese officials imposed drastic measures to cut pollution levels in the run-up to the games, including pulling half the city's 3.3 million vehicles off the roads and shutting down scores of factories.

It seems to have had some impact. The air quality level in Beijing for the first two weeks of August show the air pollution to be significantly lower than for the same time last year.

The Associated Press' own independent air sampling from the Olympic Green and marathon course also shows lower levels of particulate matter in the air, though the figures are up to three times higher than China's official numbers.

Opinion is divided on the health implications.

Janis Schaeffer, an American pulmonologist who works with a foundation that encourages young asthmatics to participate in sports, said endurance athletes are at the greatest risk here because of the length of time they're exposed to the polluted air. That makes them more susceptible to heat exhaustion, heat stroke or plain old irritation in the eyes, nose and throat.

"The thing that makes it unprecedented in Beijing is the triple threat: heat, humidity and haze," she said. "If it's not one thing, the others are a problem."

Peter Dingle, an associate professor of health and the environment at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, said the microscopic dust particles could cause problems by getting into the deepest parts of the lungs.

"It can actually get into the blood and thicken it," he said. "That obviously has the biggest impact on those who are out there the longest in the dirtiest air."

Still, the American, British, Spanish and French teams have not reported any medical problems associated with pollution so far, and Baquie, the Australian team doctor, said the ailments affecting his runners have been nothing out of the ordinary.

"People are getting viral respiratory infections," he said, "but no more than you would expect among a group of athletes in such a competition."

Zhou Chunxiu, the daughter of peasant farmers from the central Henan province and a world championships silver medalist last year, carries the host nation's hopes in the longer distances. She agreed the conditions will be challenging - the annual Beijing Marathon is not held until the weather cools in October - but like the Olympics organizers, she is determined for everything to come off without a hitch.

"Hosting the Olympic Games has put a lot of pressure on us and we have to adjust to cope with it," she told the China Daily newspaper. "I just hope I can run into the top three - even the third place is a breakthrough for China."

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Associated Press Writer Tini Tran in Beijing contributed to this report.