Chinese Runner's Half Marathon Win Raises Questions: 'Extremely Odd'

The Beijing Half Marathon is steeped in controversy after Chinese runner He Jie sprinted to victory with the alleged help of competitors.

The conclusion of the 13.1-mile race caused an uproar on Chinese social media and prompted an investigation. One of the other runners said that he had let He win out of friendship.

Just six months ago, He, 25, received accolades as the first Chinese national to snag gold in the men's marathon event of the Asian Games, which were held in October in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

However, during the final stretch of Sunday's half marathon, the athlete was lagging behind Kenyans Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat and Ethiopian Dejene Bikila.

Broadcast footage shows the three other runners looking back at He and seeming to slow down to allow him to close the distance. They even appear to be waving the Chinese marathoner ahead of them.

Agence France-Presse cited event organizer the Beijing Sports Competition Management and International Exchange Center, as well as an anonymous source from the Beijing Sports Bureau, as saying an investigation is underway.

The Beijing Sports Bureau did not immediately respond to a written request for comment from Newsweek.

He finished the race in 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds, just one second ahead of the other three.

"This is extremely odd," China sports analyst Mark Dreyer wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Keter and Mnangat had "clearly let China's He Jie—current Asian Games marathon champion—win the race, all the while coasting themselves, waving him through and congratulating him after the race. Appears to be a tacit agreement?" Dreyer added.

Mnangat later told the South China Morning Post that he had allowed He to pass him because "He is my friend."

The newspaper also cited He as saying he was "not in [his] best competitive state" because he had recently competed in a full marathon in March. Otherwise, "I believe my performance would have been better," he said.

Chinese social media was flooded with netizens lampooning He's victory.

One account reposted the contest's final moments with the caption "He Jie sprints to win the championship. It looks like the foreign runners don't want to compete."

"Can I go to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection to report match-fixing?" another person wrote, referring to the Chinese Communist Party's top disciplinary watchdog.

"I thought there was only match-fixing in soccer in China. I didn't think marathons could be run like this," one critic wrote in an apparent reference to the former head of the Chinese national men's soccer team, who has confessed to that offense.

Another person quipped, "It would be better for the three of them to carry He Jie to the finish line in a sedan chair, which is a little more ornamental."