Taiwan's Lin Kuan-ju wins gold in women's IAU ultramarathon event

New Delhi, July 3 (CNA) Taiwanese runner Lin Kuan-ju (林冠汝) finished first in the women's race at the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) 24H Asia and Oceania Championships on Sunday, covering 214.8 kilometers in 24 hours to take home gold.

Lin's 537 laps of the 400-meter track in Bengaluru, southern India, where participants ran between 8 a.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday, put her four laps ahead of women's silver medalist Cassie Cohen of Australia, and was also good enough for 5th place overall.

Lin, a sports coach and the youngest member of Taiwan's team at the IAU event, told CNA she was surprised to put in "such a good performance," adding that she only began running in 2012, and only completed her first ultradistance race in 2015.

Lin said that after gradually increasing her training load from 400 km in April to 600 km in May, the thing she was now looking forward to most was a good rest.

After a COVID-19-imposed gap of three years, the biennial regional IAU championships brought together nearly 40 runners from countries including Australia, Poland, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and India.

In the men's race, Taiwan's Tsai Hsing-kuo (蔡性國) finished sixth with 517 laps, while both Taiwanese men's and women's teams secured bronze medals.