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The marathon community is dealing with the controversial victory of the Chinese runner He Jie at the Beijing half marathon that concluded on April 14. A trio of African runners were seen letting the Chinese runner win deliberately by slowing down after coming near the finish line.
Some netizens have raised concerns after watching the events unfold in front of their eyes in Beijing. Kenya's Willy Mnangat turned toward He and signaled him to move forward as the four runners were just beside each other a few meters before the finish line.
Right after this, Kenya's Robert Kerter was seen signaling He to move ahead of the pack while asking his companion and Dejene Hailu from Ethiopia to lower their pace.
The marathon enthusiasts couldn't hold themselves back from expressing about the controversial finish. One of the netizens calling out the match-fixing in this race expressed:
"Now I'm no expert in long distance match fixing, but, eh, well this looks to be a bit on the dodgy side."
Questioning the role of the runners, one of the enthusiasts stated:
"Are them three guys the pace setters?"
Another netizen pouring in his understanding commented:
"He looks gassed the other three just chilling.. definitely rigged."
As the Kenyan runner, Mnangat revealed that they ran as pacemakers, one of the marathon enthusiasts expressed:
"Surely if they were pacemakers, they'd run at the pace required to let him break the record, rather than just run slowly enough to lose to him? They would also likely have been marked as pacemakers. Seems dodgy."
Questioning the integrity of the racers, one of the netizens stated:
"I wonder how much they got paid."
The organisers are currently investigating this controversial finish and the runners have already given their statements in their defense.
Runners open up after their Beijing half marathon controversy
After being questioned on the internet, Willy Mnangat has revealed that he, Robert Kerter, and Dejene Hailu ran as pacemakers. Adding to this, he also shared with BBC Sport, that four runners were given the contract of helping He Jie break the Chinese half-marathon record of 1:02:33.
"I was not there to compete. It was not a competitive race for me," Mnangat said.
Mnangat also emphasized the fact that he wasn't labeled as a pacemaker, instead, he was given a number just like every other runner.
"I don't know why they put my name on my bib/chest number instead of labelling it as a pacemaker. My job was to set the pace and help the guy win but unfortunately, he did not achieve the target, which was to break the national record," Mnangat stated.
He Jie won the Beijing half marathon by clocking a time of 1:03:44 to take home the $5,500 first prize. The African trio grabbed the second position with a difference of just one second from Jie.
