Controversy at Beijing Half Marathon: Did Chinese Athlete Win Legitimately?

They ran at the same pace throughout the race, even running neatly next to each other a few hundred meters before the finish, but just before the end one of the four runners pointed to the finish line and waved his hand. As if he wanted to say: this is the moment, pass by. The images of last Sunday’s half marathon in Beijing went around the world. Did the Chinese athlete He Jie win on his own, or did the Ethiopian and two Kenyan athletes deliberately let him cross the finish line first by slowing down themselves?

In fact, the Kenyan runner Willy Mnangat had already admitted how it was back then BBC Sport Africa asked about it right after the game. For a moment he claimed to have given Jie priority “because he is my friend”, but not long afterwards he came clean. Together with fellow countryman Robert Keter and Ethiopian Dejene Hailu Bikila, he was hired as a so-called ‘hare’ for Jie, he said. “I didn’t participate to win,” said Mnangat, “it wasn’t an exciting match for me.”

Return medals and bonuses

On Tuesday it officially emerged that cheating had taken place, after the organization of the running race had an investigation carried out into the very strange scenes at the finish. So the foursome – Jie finished in first place, the three African athletes together in second place – must hand in all medals, trophies and bonuses. The hares were hired by a co-sponsor of the event. The organization of the half marathon immediately terminates its collaboration with the sports agency.

The use of hares, also known in English pacemakers mentioned, is not prohibited, even common, during running races. This must be stated on the starting number. In this case that was not the case. “I don’t know why they put my name on the starting number,” Mnangat said later. “My job was to speed up and let Jie win.”

And so it all turned out to be for nothing: the trio were supposed to help Jie – himself a Chinese record holder in the full marathon and gold medalist at the marathon in Hangzhou last year – to set a record in the half marathon, but he still came in one minute and eleven. seconds too late crossing the finish line. The times of all four athletes will be deleted from the books.

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