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Organisers of the Beijing half marathon are investigating allegations that three African athletes deliberately allowed China\u2019s star runner He Jie to win Sunday\u2019s race.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Footage appeared to show Kenya\u2019s Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat and Ethiopia\u2019s Dejene Hailu pointing to the line and slowing down before waving past He, 25.<\/span><\/p>\n The result was criticised by some Chinese social media users.<\/span><\/p>\n Mnangat has since said that the trio ran as pacemakers.<\/span><\/p>\n The Kenyan said four runners had been contracted to help He break the Chinese half-marathon record of one hour two minutes 33 seconds, and that one of them did not finish the race.<\/span><\/p>\n He missed out on the record with a time of 1:03:44, one second ahead of the trio, who tied for second place.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was not there to compete,\u201d said Mnangat. \u201cIt was not a competitive race for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A spokesperson at the Beijing Sports Bureau told AFP they were investigating the incident, adding: \u201cWe will announce the results to the public once they are available.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Mnangat added: \u201cI don\u2019t know why they put my name on my bib\/chest number instead of labelling it as a pacemaker.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n None of the other runners have commented on the incident yet.<\/span><\/p>\n China\u2019s He won marathon gold at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou and is his country\u2019s record holder for the full marathon.<\/span><\/p>\n A statement from World Athletics to BBC Sport said: \u201cWe are aware of the footage circulating online from the Beijing half marathon this weekend and understand an investigation is currently being conducted by the relevant local authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe integrity of our sport is the highest priority at World Athletics, while this investigation is ongoing we are unable to provide further comment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Users of Chinese social media site Weibo have posted about the race, with a comment saying \u201cthis is no doubt the most embarrassing title of He Jie\u2019s career\u201d receiving more than 1,000 likes.<\/span><\/p>\n Another post added: \u201cWith such a major organiser and such a well-known event, this really pushes sportsmanship to the ground in shame.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The post Beijing half marathon: Organisers investigating controversial finish<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Organisers of the Beijing half marathon are investigating allegations that three African athletes deliberately allowed China\u2019s star runner He Jie to win Sunday\u2019s race. Footage appeared to show Kenya\u2019s Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat and Ethiopia\u2019s Dejene Hailu pointing to the line and slowing down before waving past He, 25. The result was criticised by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27715\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}