Kenya's James Kwambi Kipsang took the men's title while China's Sun Weiwei won the women's race in the Beijing International Marathon held earlier this month.

Although the victors come from different countries in different continents, they demonstrated the common pursuit of Africa and China for the sport spirit "Citius Altius Fortius" (Faster Higher Stronger). Sports have linked China and Africa tightly like yellow and black loops of the Olympic rings.

The Sino-African sports cooperation can be traced back to the early 1950's. As the two sides differ from each other in strong and weak events, their sports cooperation has expanded continuously and begun to bear remarkable fruits in recent years.

According to the statistics from the General Administration of Sports of China, high-level sports delegations from China and Africa have frequently exchanged visits since 2000. The Chinese authorities have signed agreements on sports cooperation with South Africa, Lesotho, Egypt and Tunisia.

To help African nations register notable progress in their weak events, China has dispatched 38 coaches of 13 events to a total of 12 countries on the African continent.

Among them, one eye-catching event is table tennis in which Chinese sportspeople have dominated world titles for years. Chinese coaches have made unremitting efforts to help African countries like Egypt, Nigeria and Ghana see remarkable improvement in the event.

In South Africa, Chinese coach Zhou Xuexing receives warm welcome from his trainees. Zhou's South African assistant Shane Overmeyer said "the arrival of Zhou greatly boosts our level of playing table tennis and helps us gain confidence to seek a position in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games."

HELPING EACH OTHER

On the African part, sports powers of the continent have also rendered generous assistance to China in the events including soccer.

Lin Xiaohua, an official of the General Administration of Sports of China in charge of international communication, said that soccer players from Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal have joined sports clubs in China and staged good performance in Chinese Soccer League. The number of African players in Chinese Super League has increased to nine and that in Chinese Soccer League A has risen to 11.

"The joining of African soccer players has contributed to raising Chinese general football standard and played an important role in strengthening Sino-African sports communications, "Lin said in an e-mail interview with Xinhua.

Besides the cooperation in building up weak sports events, China has helped Africa build sports facilities and stadiums, which not only enable African countries to host large-scale games but also provide a platform for African public sports.

A high-profile sports event in Africa now is the qualifier series for the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana. Two years later, winners of the qualifiers are slated to kick off the finals in the Tamale stadium of Ghana which is under construction by The Shanghai Construction Group of China.

After an inspection visit to the stadium that will be completed ahead of schedule, Ghana's Northern Regional Minister Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris commended the Shanghai Construction Group for their dedication to work and their working efficiency and speed.

An official from Djibouti said when attending a training program in China that the stadium built by Chinese constructors in Djibouti has turned into a favorite place for the youth to play soccer and helped cut criminal cases in the eastern African country.

PROGRESSING TOGETHER

In addition, both China and Africa have made rapid economic progress in the past years and attracted the attention of international sports organizations when the groups choose venues for important sports games.

Beijing will host the 2008 Olympic Games while South Africa will embrace the 2010 World Cup as the first African nation to host such a festival of worldwide football fans. Kenya, home country to numerous athletic talents, has also been chosen to host the 2007 International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships in its port city of Mombassa.

Mombassa 2007 Chief Executive Officer Isaac Kalua has visited a press center when Beijing was hosting the IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships in August. The delegation got a first hand experience of how the center, considered as a nerve center of all games, operated.

As the countdown to the above-mentioned games continues, the General Administration of Sports of China has expressed interest in expanding the Sino-African sports cooperation into the field of games organization and management, which is expected to bring the cooperation between sports professionals of the two parties to a higher level.

"Sports bring people closer," said Tunisian sports officials when meeting a Chinese delegation.