A running industry insider says fake marathon certification may be used by Chinese runners to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Photo: Weibo
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https://scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3006612/chinese-runners-accused-faking-finishing-time-records-qualify People & Culture
Chinese runners accused of faking finishing time records to qualify for place in Boston Marathon
- Insider on social media says one in 10 Chinese should not have been in race
- Times from runners who went to US sharply at odds with claims made to qualify
The Boston Marathon is one of the world’s most prestigious running events and one source claims some Chinese entrants are rigging their applications. Photo: AP
Nearly a tenth of the Chinese runners in this year’s Boston Marathon have been accused of lying about previous finishing times to qualify for the prestigious race, state radio network The Voice of China reported on Wednesday.
The accusations were made by a running industry insider on WeChat, who claimed that an unidentified Chinese travel company collaborated with a group of “more than 90” mainland runners to falsify their records.
“Today, several fellow runners gave me some explosive information that greatly shocked me. If it’s true, this will be an ugly piece of news that would shock the global running community, and completely dishonour Chinese runners,” the source wrote.
“At the moment, there are already people investigating this situation and collecting evidence. Being an industry insider, I only hope that this is fake news. If it’s true, it would be a huge blow to the development of running in China.”
There were 30,234 runners in Monday’s race, including 951 Chinese nationals – 40 per cent more than the 682 who took part last year.
To register online for this year’s race, runners aged 18 and above had to have achieved a certain qualifying time. dependent on their age and sex, in a recent marathon. They were then required to provide an electronic copy of their finishing certificate.
Boston is the longest-running modern marathon in the world, and is regarded by elite runners as the most illustrious competition.
This year, the men’s and women’s races were won by Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono and Lelisa Desisa from Ethiopia.
Some industry insiders have long suspected that some Chinese runners have faking their credentials using imaging software such as Photoshop.
“The Boston Marathon has very strict guidelines … and you must reach their lowest threshold to successfully register. As a result, falsification is very common, as well as running on behalf of someone else,” The Voice of China quoted veteran marathon runner Wang Yiping as saying.
Wang has taken part in more than 20 domestic and international races, including the annual Paris Marathon, the report said.
Qualifying for the Boston Marathon is a complex affair and the vast majority of runners are true to the spirit of the competition. Photo: Reuters
The Voice of China found that one sports travel agency, named Yan’er Sports, guaranteed that runners would not need to provide certificates with finishing times to register for the Boston Marathon, and that it would handle all the qualifications.
Yan’er Sports charged 50,000 yuan (US$7,475) per person to register for the Boston Marathon last year, excluding flights and accommodation.
An unnamed Yan’er Sports representative was quoted as saying “We do not provide finishing time certificates”.
The Voice of China also found that several Chinese Boston Marathon participants took much longer to complete the race than the times they submitted for registration purposes.
One unnamed female runner, number 13075, finished the race in 6 hours 11 minutes, despite providing a 3 hour 35 minute qualifying time.
An unnamed male runner qualified with a 3 hour 5 minute finish, but ended the race in 5 hours 26 minutes.
Marathon running is a booming industry in China, set to reach US$17 billion in value by 2020, the South China Morning Post has reported, with hundreds of thousands of people taking up the sport in recent years.
However, it has been marred by a history of cheating and improper sportsmanship on the mainland.
In December, a Chinese runner lost the Suzhou Taihu Marathon by five seconds after event staff repeatedly interrupted her running to hand her a Chinese flag.
Meanwhile, 258 participants in a Shenzhen half-marathon last November were disqualified for cheating by methods including taking short cuts and using impostors to run on their behalf.
As a result, 21 runners wearing fake bibs were barred for life from the sport, while the rest of the disqualified runners were handed two-year bans.
“For runners, respecting the rules should be the bottom line of marathons, because there is no fairness without rules and competition is pointless without fairness,” Xinhua wrote in a commentary at the time.
Back in 2017, the oversubscribed Beijing Marathon was flooded with unregistered runners who used fake number tags to take part.
Some sporting experts believed that further measures needed to be taken to make sure that the development of China’s nascent running industry was not tainted by scandal.
“It is very important to set up a blacklist, which will make the price of offending very high,” Zhang Qing, the founder of Beijing sports consultancy The Road is Key, was quoted as telling The Voice of China.
Several Chinese running associations and sports tourism agencies have been contacted for comment.
Industry experts in China say that a blacklist may be required to beat marathon cheating. Photo: AP