自宅内で６６キロ走破！家に閉じこもる中国人ジョギング愛好家が偉業

【香港ＡＦＰ＝時事】新型コロナウイルスが猛威を振るう中国で、屋内に閉じ込められた人々が健康を維持しようと努める中、ある熱心なジョギング愛好家の男性がアパートの小さな部屋内で、66キロというウルトラマラソン級の距離を走破した。（写真は中国東部・杭州で、自宅の寝室内を走り回る潘善粗さん）
　政府は人々に対し、病気と闘うために運動をするよう積極的に呼び掛けており、同国では健康増進への取り組みが活発化。中国共産党は、屋内で日々を過ごす中にあっても健康を維持する方法を、五輪選手が紹介するキャンペーンに乗り出している。
　そうした中、１４億人もの人口の多くが屋内にとどまるよう命じられ、体育館なども閉鎖されている中、人々は水入りペットボトルをどれだけ多く抱え上げられるか、子どもを背中に乗せて腕立て伏せが何回できるか、高層マンションの一角で何階まで上れるかなどを競い合っている。
　だが、上海に近い杭州市に住む潘善粗さん（４４）は、自宅内で６時間４１分にわたって走り続け、６６キロもの距離を走破したと主張。文句なく金メダル級の偉業と言える。
　潘さんによると追跡データでそれを証明できるといい、潘さんがアパートの部屋の中で家具の周りを繰り返し回り続ける様子を捉えた動画は、同国で拡散した。
　潘さんはＡＦＰの電話取材に対し、「最初は少しフラフラしたが、何度も回った後に慣れてきた」と述べ、「ランニングは中毒のようなものだ。長い間走らないでいると、足がムズムズする」と語った。
　潘さんはこれとは別に、過去２週間にわたって同じように家に閉じ込められている人々を鼓舞するべく、浴室内で３０キロほど走り、その模様をライブ配信した。
　マッサージ師で熱心な長距離ランナーである潘さんは、「ネット上のチャットグループでは人々が、流行が終わった後に何を一番やりたいか尋ね合っている」とし、「宴会を開きたいという人もいたが、私は外で１００キロ走りたいと言った」という。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/02/17-12:51）

A fanatical runner jogged the equivalent of an ultra-marathon inside his small apartment as people in virus-hit China desperately try to keep fit while cooped up indoors.
The country is at the centre of an outbreak of a new coronavirus, leaving more than 1,500 dead and sparking global alarm, but it is also in the grip of a health drive because the government is aggressively encouraging people to exercise to fight the disease.
With much of the 1.4 billion population ordered indoors and gyms closed, people are competing to outdo each other in how many bottles of water they can lift, how many push-ups they can do with their children on their backs or how many flights of stairs they can scale in their tower blocks.
But Pan Shancu has easily won the unofficial gold medal, saying he jogged 66 kilometres (41 miles) in a loop at home in six hours, 41 minutes.
He has the data tracker that he says proves it, and the 44-year-old's feat and a video of him repeatedly circling furniture in his apartment went viral in China.
I felt a little dizzy at first, but you get used to it after you circle many times, Pan told AFP by telephone from Hangzhou, near Shanghai.
Running is like an addiction. If you don't run for a long time, you get itchy feet.
On another occasion Pan ran 30 kilometres on the spot in his bathroom and live-streamed it to inspire others who have similarly been confined at home for the last two weeks.
I am in an online chat group in which people are asking what we want to do most after the epidemic, said Pan, a massage therapist and dedicated long-distance runner.
Some people said they want to have a feast. I said that I want to run 100 kilometres outside.
- Running the stairwells -
China's ruling Communist Party has launched a campaign featuring Olympic athletes to demonstrate how people can stay fit while spending endless days stuck inside.
Tables, chairs and even door frames can all be used in one form or another to help exercise, according to one online pamphlet.
Schools are shut and children are not exempt. They have been ordered by education authorities not to simply lounge about playing computer games and fiddling with their phones.
In addition to letting children help parents do some chores within their ability, they must get creative at home, government expert Zhao Wenhua told a press conference.
For example, walking and running on the spot, skipping, push-ups, sit-ups and so on.
Some people have turned to technology, using apps on their smartphones that show how to work out without equipment and sharing the results with their friends.
Bilibili, a popular video-sharing platform, says views of fitness-related content jumped nearly 50 percent in the period January 23 to February 5 compared to the two weeks before.
Peter Gardner, a 61-year-old Briton hunkered down in the snow-covered northeast city of Tianjin, prefers more traditional methods.
Like hundreds of millions of others, his movements have been severely restricted by the Chinese authorities in an attempt to stop the deadly virus spreading.
Gardner, an operations manager for an American firm, said he is allowed out of his block of flats for only 30 minutes in the daytime to stock up on essentials.
To make up for the lack of exercise, he twice runs up and down the emergency stairwell of his 17-floor apartment tower three times a day.
It's good in some ways, said Gardner, whose family have temporarily left China, leaving him with their two guinea pigs for company.
I can't go out for beers and I've lost about three-quarters of a kilo, he said by telephone.
There are no places to eat, nowhere to go and I'm eating simply, because I can't buy the stuff I want.