Runners take off from the starting line at the 2020 Hangzhou Dream Town Half Marathon on Nov 29. [Photo/hangzhou.com.cn]

Digital technologies played an important role in the 2020 Hangzhou Dream Town Half Marathon which kicked off in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province on Nov 29.

Runners started at the Academic Exchange Center of Hangzhou Future Technology City and passed by almost all of the innovation centers in western Hangzhou before returning to the finish line at the Academic Exchange Center.

The registration opened on Oct 27 and over 7,000 runners signed up in 10 days. Running groups comprising members of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee, Alibaba Damo Academy, the Medical Center of Zhejiang University, and 30 other institutes and organizations participated in the event.

A command center monitors the marathon with sensors, cameras, and drones. [Photo/hangzhou.com.cn]

A big data command center which allowed for better organization and emergency response was built for the event. Digital gadgets including sensors, cameras, and drones were also deployed and connected to the 5G network to monitor the event.