Organizers of the Beijing half marathon are investigating claims that three African athletes deliberately gave up the win in favor of top Chinese runner He Jia last Sunday.
A video circulating online purportedly shows Kenyans Robert Kater and Willy Mangat and Ethiopian Djena Hailu pointing at the finish line and slowing their run before signaling the 25-year-old Leha to overtake them and win.
But sharp-eyed Chinese surfers got over the alleged scam. Kenyan Mangat said four runners were signed to help Jia break the Chinese half marathon record of 1 hour 2 minutes 33 seconds, and that one of them did not finish the race. Jia missed the record by just one second, with a time of 1:03:44. Three other runners finished in a tie for second.
"I didn't come to compete," Mangat admitted. "For me, it wasn't a competitive race."
It's hard to get confused here. The African runners let the Chinese win
A spokesman for the Ministry of Sports in Beijing told the French news agency AFP that they are investigating the incident. He added: "We will publish the findings to the public as soon as they are available."
Mangat added: "I don't know why they put my name on my number/chest instead of labeling him as pacemaker.
"My job was to set the pace and help the guy win but unfortunately he didn't meet the goal, which was to break the national record."
Nobody Other runners have not yet commented on the incident, but in a statement from the World Athletics Federation it was stated in response: "We are aware of the footage circulating online from the half marathon in Beijing this weekend and understand that an investigation is currently being carried out by the relevant local authorities."
"The most important expression in our sport is integrity, so while the investigation is ongoing, we cannot comment further." This is how the case was treated in "world athletics".
On the Chinese social network website Weibo, many surfers responded to the race, and one of the responses, "There is no doubt that this is the most embarrassing win in Jia's career," received more than 1,000 likes.