Leading companies engaged in the sport industry were also in attendance with Dalian Wanda Group and Xiamen C&D Corporation presenting themselves at the expo.

A marathon enthusiast experiences a race via virtual reality device at the first China Marathon Expo in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Dec 30. [Photo by Wei Peiquan/Xinhua]

China's first marathon expo opens in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Dec 30. [Photo by Wei Peiquan/Xinhua]

The Xiamen Marathon was enjoying its 15th year anniversary and used the new expo as an opportunity to release cutting-edge training strategies based upon big data collected from 400,000 exercise logs from 783 runners. A forum focused on the development of the marathon industry took place as part of the expo on Dec 30.

Launched in 2003, the Xiamen International Marathon is an annual marathon held in January. The event is one of China's premier marathons and is considered a Gold Label Road Race by IAAF.