Organizers of the Beijing half marathon are investigating the men’s race after two Kenyan runners and an Ethiopian runner appeared to have deliberately allowed China’s He Jie to win.
Footage from the final few hundred meters of the race appears to show Kenya’s Robert Kettle and Willie Mnangat and Ethiopia’s Dejene Hailu Bikila slowing down and gesturing in front of them, encouraging him to pass and take the lead.
The four athletes who had run together throughout the race then ran side by side towards the finish line before the three African athletes stepped back to allow Ho to cross the track first.
Mnangagte told BBC Sport they were the frontrunners for China’s full marathon national champion He Jiankui. “I’m not here to compete,” Mnangat said. “This is not a competitive game for me.”
After the match, the Kenyan initially said he allowed him to win “because he was my friend”. “He came to Kenya and I [pacing for him] In the Wuxi Marathon, so he is my friend, okay,” Mnangat told the South China Morning Post.
Mnangagte said three African runners and a fourth runner who did not finish the race were hired to help He Jiankui break the Chinese half-marathon record.
“I don’t know why they put my name on my bib/chest number instead of labeling it as a pacemaker,” Mnangagte told the BBC. “My job was to set the pace and help him win, but unfortunately he didn’t achieve his goal of breaking the national record.”
On April 14, a fake race was suspected at the Beijing Half Marathon, arousing public doubts. In the video, in the last few hundred meters of the race, Chinese player He Jie was originally lagging behind, but one of the three foreign athletes turned around and waved his hand as if to signal He Jie to overtake, and then signaled his teammates to slow down. In the end, He Jie completed the overtake in a tacit understanding and won the championship with a one second advantage.
This dramatic scene aroused public doubts. … pic.twitter.com/dRWxbBcIhB— Teacher Li is not your teacher (@whyyoutouzhele) April 14, 2024
He won in 1 minute 03.44 seconds, 1 minute 11 seconds off the record, with Mnangat, Kate and Bikila tied for second.
The Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau confirmed to AFP that it was investigating the situation near the finish line and any results would be “immediately disclosed to the public”.
World Athletics said in a statement: “We are aware of a video of this weekend’s Beijing Half Marathon circulating online and understand that an investigation is currently underway by relevant local authorities. The integrity of our sport is World Athletics’ highest priority , while the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to provide further comment.
