The top finishers of the Beijing Half Marathon have been disqualified after three runners from Africa appeared to step aside on Sunday to allow a Chinese competitor to win the race.
The four runners approached the finish close together, as they had done for most of the race. But then three of the runners appeared to move aside and gestured for the fourth, He Jie of China, to pass them.
He won the race and the three other runners, Willy Mnangat and Robert Keter from Kenya, and Dejene Hailu from Ethiopia, took the next three places.
Images of the finish caused an uproar and led many inside and outside China to wonder why the three other runners had seemingly given He the win.
Mnangat later told The South China Morning Post that the African runners had been hired as pacers in an attempt to help him break the Chinese half-marathon record.
All four runners are now disqualified. Race organizers said in a statement shared with CCTV, the state broadcaster, on Friday that Xtep, the race sponsor, had invited the African trio to be pacesetters but that they should not have been eligible to compete as regular competitors. (According to the statement, a fourth pacer retired earlier in the race.)
During the final two kilometers of the race, three of the pacers “actively slowed down,” the investigation concluded, helping He win the men’s race.
A committee set up to investigate the incident said in the statement from race organizers that they would “withdraw their trophies, medals and bonuses.” The committee apologized and said it would “learn lessons” from the episode.
An official from the Chinese Athletics Association, which is responsible for athletics and road running in the country, said the group would “further strengthen the supervision, guidance and services of road running events,” according to China’s state news agency Xinhua. . The official added that the association would “encourage regional associations and event organizers to learn lessons from this Beijing Half Marathon.”
Pacemakers are used in some top-level track and road races to help other athletes run faster, but they normally fail before the race finishes.
Organizers confirmed that Xtep had invited Mnangat, Keter and Hailu as pacers, but said they were registered as competitors instead.
“We bear significant responsibility for this incident and fully accept the penalties imposed by the organizing committee,” Xtep said on Friday, according to The South China Morning Post.
In the end he ran 1:03:44, over a minute short of the record he was trying to break.