On April 14, Chinese athlete He Jie, marathon gold medalist at the 2023 Asian Games, crossed the finish line of the Beijing half-marathon. Problem, a few seconds earlier, videos show that three other runners, the Kenyan Willy Mnangat, his compatriot Robert Keter and the Ethiopian Dejen Hailu Bikila, seem to slow down to let him win. The first notably signals him to pass and the trio slows down, letting the Chinese athlete cross the finish line. The images, which went viral on social networks, raised many questions and sparked an outcry in China, pushing organizers to open an investigation at the start of the week.
In an interview with the BBC, Willy Mnangat admitted to having let the Chinese athlete win, claiming that he and the two other runners were in reality "hares", that is to say runners who do not aim for a time personal, but serve as a benchmark for one or more other athletes, allowing them not to think about the pace to follow.
Except that “the hares” are supposed to be declared and must wear a specific and identifiable chasuble. Which was not the case for the three runners on race day. The fault lies with one of the race's partner companies, which visibly failed to declare the three runners as pace leaders, according to the organizing committee in a press release cited by Chinese state television CCTV. The four athletes were therefore disqualified. The organizing committee, which announced that it had withdrawn their “trophies, medals and bonuses”, apologized and said it was “deeply guilty” of not having “detected and corrected” this problem in time.
Several sporting events in China have already been hit by controversies in recent years. In 2019, a participant in the Xuzhou International Marathon (east) was seen and filmed on a bike. This year, a Chinese orienteering team was disqualified for “cheating” during the Military Games.