Zhou Fuyuan and his wife, Jiang Yunying, are leathery-faced peasant farmers in one of the poorest counties of one of the poorest Chinese provinces — Henan.

They live in a simple house with an outside tap and toilet, which is at the end of a muddy alley. They keep chickens in a coop on the roof and a sheep in the yard.

Just beyond their village they have 2 mu (0.33 acres) of land on which they grow the aubergines, peppers and spring onions that Ms Jiang, 56, sells each morning in the nearby town of Sheqi.

Only one thing distinguishes this couple from millions of other peasant farmers.

Their daughter, Zhou Chunxiu, 29, is the top marathon runner in China and is the best hope her country has of winning gold in a women's track event in the Beijing Olympics.

She is also one of the greatest rivals of Paula Radcliffe, should the native of the utterly different village of Davenham, Cheshire, be fit to run.

The parents of Zhou will not be in the Olympic stadium watching her, however. “There's a lot of work here. We have to tend the vegetables, and we don't know anybody in Beijing,” her mother, who had never heard of Radcliffe, cheerily told The Times.

When Zhou was 11, Feng Xiaoyi, who runs a part-time sports school in Sheqi, visited the primary school in the village to recruit members.

Ms Feng chose ten children, including Zhou, who was short and thin but said that she loved to run.

The others soon dropped out, but not Zhou. Early each morning, and after school, she walked the 30 minutes into Sheqi because her family had no bicycle.

She then ran 3km (just under two miles) along the streets because the sports school had no track. She wore simple cloth shoes with rubber soles because she could not afford trainers.

Three years later she entered her first big race in the city of Nanyang, came second, and was swiftly sucked into the super-intense state-run system for turning promising athletes into world-beaters.

Zhou now runs between 120 and 190 miles a week in training sessions, won the 2007 London Marathon and, in Osaka last September, became the first Chinese marathon runner ever to win a World Championship medal.

Ms Feng, 45, is understandably proud of discovering such an athlete, and Zhou wants her to travel to Beijing to watch the race.

Ms Feng said that if her protégée won gold she would weep with joy.

In Sheqi the council cannot afford an outside screen, but the whole town will watch on television. The parents of Zhou will have the local Communist Party hierarchy packed into their tiny living room.

Ms Jiang said that if her daughter won: “I'll be very, very pleased she's done this for China, but I'll also feel sorry because she's put in so much effort over so many years and it's been very difficult for her.”

She attributes the success of her daughter to her tough upbringing. “If you can't eat bitter you can't do this,” she said, referring to the traditional Chinese notion of chiku — enduring hardship.