# Asian Marathon Championships

The Asian Marathon Championships is a biennial international competition in marathon road running for Asian athletes. Organised by the Asian Athletics Association, its creation in 1988 followed decision to drop the 42.195-kilometre (26-mile and 385-yard) race from the programme of events at the Asian Athletics Championships. In that competition, championship marathons were held for men in 1973 and 1975, then finally for both men and women at the 1985.
The first discrete men's and women's Asian championship marathons in 1988 were held at different locations. The men's side was incorporated into that year's Lake Biwa Marathon while the women's side was held within the Nagoya Women's Marathon. The first winners (Masayuki Nishi and Xie Lihua) were not the fastest Asian runners in those races, as only those specifically chosen to represent their nation were eligible to win the Asian title. The following edition in 1990 saw both sexes compete at the same location and again the races were hosted within a major annual marathon race, this time the Seoul International Marathon, where Korean racers Kim Won-Tak and Lee Mi-Ok claimed both the Asian and Seoul titles.
The 1992 Asian Marathon Championships were held in Bandung, Indonesia, outside of a major race for the first time. This was reverted soon after in 1994, when the men's race was contained at the Beppu-Ōita Marathon and the women in Nagoya for a second time. Since then, each occurrence of the championship has been in one location for both sexes alongside a major city marathon. The Pattaya Marathon has hosted the event twice (2000 and 2011), while the Hong Kong Marathon has served as the venue three times (2002, 2008 and 2013).
East Asian runners have been the most successful at the competition, with the Japanese topping the rankings with nine men's titles and four women's titles across the championship's history. China, South Korea and North Korea have each won four titles between the men's and women's races. North Korea's Kim Kum-Ok is the most successful runner in competition history – she is a three-time winner of the women's championship (2006, 2008 and 2013). Kenichi Kawakubo, Mohammed Abduh Bakhet and Zhang Shujing are the only other runners to have won the championship twice.

## Editions

* First three championships held within Asian Athletics Championships
| Edition | Year | Race | City | Country | Date |
| — | 1973 | Asian Athletics Championships | Marikina | Philippines | 23 November |
| — | 1975 | Asian Athletics Championships | Seoul | South Korea | 14 June |
| — | 1985 | Asian Athletics Championships | Jakarta | Indonesia | 29 September |
| 1 | 1988 | Lake Biwa Marathon/ Nagoya Women's Marathon | Otsu/Nagoya | Japan | 13 March/ 6 March |
| 2 | 1990 | Seoul International Marathon | Seoul | South Korea | 18 March |
| 3 | 1992 | — | Bandung | Indonesia | 4 October |
| 4 | 1994 | Beppu-Ōita Marathon/ Nagoya Women's Marathon | Oita/Nagoya | Japan | 6 February/ 13 March |
| 5 | 1996 | Chuncheon Marathon | Chuncheon | South Korea | 27 October |
| 6 | 1998 | Ayutthaya Marathon | Ayutthaya | Thailand | 8 February |
| 7 | 2000 | Pattaya Marathon | Pattaya | Thailand | 2 July |
| 8 | 2002 | Hong Kong Marathon | Hong Kong | Hong Kong, China | 24 February |
| 9 | 2004 | JoongAng Seoul Marathon | Seoul | South Korea | 7 November |
| 10 | 2006 | Beijing Marathon | Beijing | China | 15 October |
| 11 | 2008 | Hong Kong Marathon | Hong Kong | Hong Kong, China | 17 February |
| 12 | 2010 | Pune Marathon | Pune | India | 5 December |
| 13 | 2011 | Pattaya Marathon | Pattaya | Thailand | 17 July |
| 14 | 2013 | Hong Kong Marathon | Hong Kong | Hong Kong, China | 24 February |
| 15 | 2015 | Hong Kong Marathon | Hong Kong | Hong Kong, China | 25 January |
| 16 | 2017 | — | Dongguan | China | 26 November |
| 17 | 2019 | — | Dongguan | China | 22 December |
| 18 | 2024 | Hong Kong Marathon | Hong Kong | Hong Kong, China | 21 January |

## Medallists
### Men

| Year | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 1973 | Cho Je-Hyung (KOR) | 2:27:31 | Park Chang-Yuel (KOR) | 2:33:45 | Jit Bahadur Chetri (NEP) | 2:33:45 |
| 1975 | Sueki Tanaka (JPN) | 2:32:06 | Susumu Sato (JPN) | 2:37:51 | Jit Bahadur Chetri (NEP) | 2:39:06 |
| 1985 | Ling Jong-Hyen (PRK) | 2:20:29 | Tomio Sueyoshi (JPN) | 2:24:26 | Choe Il-Sop (PRK) | 2:24:52 |
| 1988 | Masayuki Nishi (JPN) | 2:15:32 | Kim Chang-Keun (KOR) | 2:26:56 | Wu Zhihan (CHN) | 2:29:39 |
| 1990 | Kim Won-Tak (KOR) | 2:11:38 | Ryuji Kondo (JPN) | 2:14:25 | Seon Jin-Soo (KOR) | 2:15:26 |
| 1992 | Eduardus Nabunome (INA) | 2:20:23 | Ryoichi Enaidani (JPN) | 2:21:17 | Yoo Young-Hoon (KOR) | 2:23:27 |
| 1994 | Yukio Suzuki (JPN) | 2:19:04 | Eduardus Nabunome (INA) | 2:21:09 | Kazumi Sakamoto (JPN) | 2:21:38 |
| 1996 | Norihiro Otoshi (JPN) | 2:14:02 | Tatsuya Hoshi (JPN) | 2:14:03 | Baek Seung-Do (KOR) | 2:14:05 |
| 1998 | Kenichi Kawakubo (JPN) | 2:20:03 | Koji Koyanagi (JPN) | 2:24:51 | Vijay Singh (IND) | 2:27:19 |
| 2000 | Kenichi Kawakubo (JPN) | 2:26:06 | Sarath Prasanna Gamage (SRI) | 2:28:25 | Yukiyasu Ogura (JPN) | 2:30:03 |
| 2002 | Satoshi Osaki (JPN) | 2:16:46 | Kurao Umeki (JPN) | 2:18:03 | Maung Maung Nge (MYA) | 2:23:15 |
| 2004 | Kim Yi-Yong (KOR) | 2:11:32 | Masami Soeta (JPN) | 2:14:34 | Han Gang (CHN) | 2:15:12 |
| 2006 | Kenichi Kita (JPN) | 2:15:37 | Takhir Mamashayev (KAZ) | 2:15:58 | Yohei Sato (JPN) | 2:16:39 |
| 2008 | Koichiro Fukuoka (JPN) | 2:16:50 | Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (MGL) | 2:20:18 | Valery Pisarev (KGZ) | 2:21:45 |
| 2010 | Mohammed Abduh Bakhet (QAT) | 2:17:34 | Yusuke Kataoka (JPN) | 2:20:28 | Deep Chand (IND) | 2:20:37 |
| 2011 | Mohammed Abduh Bakhet (QAT) | 2:21:06 | Teruto Ozaki (JPN) | 2:23:09 | Kenji Takeuchi (JPN) | 2:25:33 |
| 2013 | Ser-Od Bat-Ochir (MGL) | 2:17:56 | Andrey Petrov (UZB) | 2:20:24 | Kenzo Kawabata (JPN) | 2:22:22 |
| 2015 | Shingo Igarshi (JPN) | 2:14:29 | Pak Chol (PRK) | 2:16:09 | Olonbayar Jamsran (MGL) | 2:22:49 |
| 2017 | Gopi Thonakal (IND) | 2:15:48 | Andrey Petrov (UZB) | 2:15:51 | Tseveenravdan Byambajav (MGL) | 2:16:14 |
| 2019 | Daichi Kamino (JPN) | 2:12:18 | Ri Kang-bom (PRK) | 2:12:21 | Ryoichi Matsuo (JPN) | 2:14:32 |
| 2024 | Man Singh (IND) | 2:14:19 | Huang Yongzheng (CHN) | 2:15:24 | Ilya Tyapkin (KGZ) | 2:18:17 |

### Women

| Year | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 1985 | Asha Agarwal (IND) | 2:48:53 | Yuko Gordon (HKG) | 2:54:16 | Sun-Bok Ki (PRK) | 2:57:28 |
| 1988 | Xie Lihua (CHN) | 2:31:43 | Yoshiko Hidaka (JPN) | 2:40:29 | Mar-Mar Min (MYA) | 2:41:52 |
| 1990 | Lee Mi-Ok (KOR) | 2:37:15 | Kim Yen-Ju (KOR) | 2:37:26 | Eri Nagamine (JPN) | 2:49:53 |
| 1992 | Sunita Godara (IND) | 2:53:12 | Yi-Lo Man (HKG) | 2:55:58 | Yoshiko Hirohama (JPN) | 2:57:11 |
| 1994 | Eriko Asai (JPN) | 2:30:30 | Akiyo Goto (JPN) | 2:43:41 | Winnie Lai-Chu Ng (HKG) | 2:36:33 |
| 1996 | Yukari Komatsu (JPN) | 2:37:54 | Toshiko Mori (JPN) | 2:38:04 | Bang Sun-Hee (KOR) | 2:39:48 |
| 1998 | Tian Mei (CHN) | 2:46:47 | Vally Sathyabhama (IND) | 3:06:07 | Indiresh Dhiraj (IND) | 3:19:21 |
| 2000 | Sunisa Sailomyen (THA) | 2:58:14 | Christabel Martes (PHI) | 3:05:07 | Winnie Lai-Chu Ng (HKG) | 3:09:43 |
| 2002 | Zhang Shujing (CHN) | 2:36:27 | Mio Kiuchi (JPN) | 2:38:35 | Hideko Yoshimura (JPN) | 2:42:21 |
| 2004 | Zhang Shujing (CHN) | 2:36:22 | Choi Kyung-Hee (KOR) | 2:38:03 | Bai Xue (CHN) | 2:42:21 |
| 2006 | Kim Kum-ok (PRK) | 2:35:16 | Zhang Shujing (CHN) | 2:35:24 | Hyong-Sun Oh (PRK) | 2:36:48 |
| 2008 | Kim Kum-ok (PRK) | 2:36:43 | Jong Yong-Ok (PRK) | 2:36:43 | Mika Hikchi (JPN) | 2:36:50 |
| 2010 | Hiromi Ominami (JPN) | 2:44:19 | Viktoriia Poliudina (KGZ) | 2:48:46 | Chi Ngan Chow (HKG) | 3:01:22 |
| 2011 | Noriko Higuchi (JPN) | 2:44:10 | Jiang Xiaoli (CHN) | 2:52:24 | Thi-Binh Pham (VIE) | 2:53:09 |
| 2013 | Kim Kum-ok (PRK) | 2:32:21 | Kumi Ogura (JPN) | 2:35:02 | Iuliia Andreeva (KGZ) | 2:39:49 |
| 2015 | Kim Hye Gyong (PRK) | 2:31:46 | Kim Mi Gyong (PRK) | 2:36:08 | Gulzhanat Zhanatbek (KAZ) | 2:38:36 |
| 2017 | Kim Hye Gyong (PRK) | 2:28:35 | Keiko Nogami (JPN) | 2:29:05 | Jo Un-ok (PRK) | 2:30:01 |
| 2019 | Ri Kwang-ok (PRK) | 2:30:56 | Mao Uesugi (JPN) | 2:31:57 | Kim Ji-hyang (PRK) | 2:32:10 |
| 2024 | Galbadrakh Khishigsaikhan (MGL) | 2:33:50 | Gulshanoi Satarova (KGZ) | 2:36:31 | Li Yingmei (CHN) | 2:40:13 |

## All time medal table (from 1988)

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Japan | 14 | 15 | 10 | 39 |
| 2 | North Korea | 6 | 4 | 3 | 13 |
| 3 | China | 4 | 3 | 4 | 11 |
| 4 | South Korea | 3 | 3 | 4 | 10 |
| 5 | India | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 6 | Mongolia | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | Qatar | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Indonesia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Thailand | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 11 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 12 | Hong Kong | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 13 | Kazakhstan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 | Philippines | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | Sri Lanka | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | Myanmar | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | Vietnam | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (17 entries) | Totals (17 entries) | 36 | 36 | 36 | 108 |