Top Chinese marathoner promises to boost Seychelles Eco-friendly marathon

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

Sun Yingjie, a top retired Chinese marathoner, has described her experience in Seychelles as enriching, and promised to help the country to make its Eco-friendly Marathon one of the best.

Sun Yingjie, a top retired Chinese marathoner, has described her experience in Seychelles as enriching, and promised to help the country to make its Eco-friendly Marathon one of the best.

She was speaking during a courtesy call to the Tourism and Culture Minister Alain St.Ange a day after taking part in the eighth edition of the Seychelles Eco-friendly Marathon.

Mrs. Sun is married and owns a sports club. Her key achievements include finishing as the first place winner in the 24th and 25th Beijing International marathon, which is one of the six top marathons in the world. She also finished in fourth place in the 106th Boston marathon in 2002.

The Chinese marathoner retired in 2009 after 16 years of doing this sport. She has around 300,000 followers on the social network Weibo.

She teamed up with Puma China and NetEase, a leading China-based Internet technology company, to promote social and sports networking in her country.

On behalf of the Seychelles Tourism Boardโ€™s Chief Executive, Sherin Naiken, Minister for Tourism and Culture, Alain St.Ange, thanked the athlete for supporting their marathon.

Discussions centered on how Puma and Mrs. Sunโ€™s expertise in this sport can be of great benefit to Seychelles.

Minister St.Ange said good brands like Seychelles need to be affiliated with top brands like Puma, adding that it will be a plus for the islands to have visibility when their brand is associated with the names of top athletes like her.

He urged the Chinese marathon runner to help Seychelles to promote the sports culture and to become a good ambassador for the islands when she gets back to China.

On her part, Mrs. Sun said she had a great Chinese New Year experience in Seychelles, and will use this to promote Seychelles in her country as one of the best destinations, adding that she will also promote the marathon event held in the islands annually.

She aims to promote the Seychelles Eco-Friendly Marathon and make it more known to the world and attract more top runners to take part in it.

Minister St.Ange invited her to be part of the 2015 Carnaval International de Victoria which will be celebrating its fifth anniversary this year.

Before leaving, Mrs. Sun was presented with a book about the Seychelles by the Minister.

Seychelles is a founding member of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) .

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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