Investigations have been launched by Beijing authorities over Sunday’s Beijing’s half-marathon after African runners appeared to slow down near the finish line to allow China’s He Jie to overtake them and win.
Jie won in a time of 1:03:44, just a second ahead of Ethiopian Dejene Hailu Bikila and Kenyans Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat, all of whom tied for the second place.
However, Mnangat has dismisses the claims, saying that that he and his two counterparts were pacesetters for Jie.
A video which Reuters tried to verify, showed three African runners waving He, who was slightly behind them, in front and gesturing towards the finish line. All four had run together for the entire race of just over 13 miles.
He is a member of China’s marathon team and national marathon record holder.
The Beijing Sports Competition Management, which was the event’s organiser and International Exchange Center – referred a Reuters enquiry to the half-marathon’s organising committee.
The Beijing Sports Bureau, the municipal body in charge of sports, said investigations were under way and the findings would be published later.
The state-controlled Global Times newspaper said He’s performance “drew scepticism as the three African runners seem to deliberately slow down for He to catch up”.
The race was highly criticised and was termed ’embarrassing’.
