Runners from home and abroad attended a marathon in Huizhou, Anhui province on April 10. The marathon laid a focus on medical aid among runners themselves.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Plea for long-distance athletes to run more safely and intelligently.

An accident in a bicycle race in the United States eight years ago alerted James Chang to the importance of sports medicine. One of his riding companions was severely injured in the accident, he says.

"His leg was badly broken and the bone was protruding out, his face was covered in blood, and the bike was smashed to pieces. It was horrific."

It was the prompt work of other riders who took care of him and stanched his bleeding as they waited for medical aid to arrive that saved his friend's life.

From then on Chang, 45, a Chinese-American who was born in Anhui province, began to make it his business to keep abreast of matters relating to physical safety and medical assistance, particularly in sport. So when he took up marathon running two years ago he was shocked to see frequent injuries, many of them avoidable.

"I always heard people talking about people in marathons in China dying suddenly," he says, adding that one reason many of these deaths happen is that there is a lot of ignorance in China about what marathon running entails.

He flew back to the country early in April and attended a medical training session for marathoners who were to run in an event in Huizhou, in Huangshan, Anhui, on April 10.