SHANGHAI, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Gashaw Asfaw lifted the Shanghai International Marathon title in a record-breaking time here on Sunday.

    Asfaw, finishing seventh in the Beijing Olympic Games, clocked a winning time of two hours 9 minutes 28 seconds, shaving about three and a half minutes off the former mark.

    Russian Irina Timofeeva, also a seventh place finisher in Beijing, clinched the women's title in 2:26:19, beating the previous best of 2:29:28.

    Kenyan Michael Kimani and his fellow countryman Joshua Chelanga finished second and third respectively while Chinese Wei Yanan and Weijie bagged the women's silver and bronze.

    Piao Zhonghao, from China seized the half marathon gold while Japanese Seike Megumi won the women's title.

    The event attracted more than record-high 20,000 runners from 51 countries and regions.

    The event became all the more impressive when Zafaris Spyros, mayor of Marathon where the sport originated, came to the Chinese port city with a holy flame ignited in the ancient Greek city.

    He lighted a torch at the starting ceremony and a torch relay took place along competition route.