Beijing Half-Marathon Under Investigation Because It Sure Looks Like Runners Let A Guy From China Win

A half-marathon in Beijing is at the center of controversy after it looked like three runners from Kenya and Ethiopia threw out their anchors to let a guy on the Chinese marathon team take the lead within sight of the finish line.

The race happened over the weekend, but clips of the finish made the social media rounds Monday. It sure looks like Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat of Kenya and Dejene Hailu of Ethiopia eased off the gas so that China's He Jie could win the race with a margin of victory of around a second, according to Hong Kong Free Press.

Take a look for yourself, but this sure looks like it was intentional.

Let's be real about this: throwing a race in China so that a member of the Chinese national team can win — while not ethical or in the spirit of athletics — is not an awful idea.

There will be other half-marathons to win, you can take a rain check on this one. Plus, no one cares who wins a half marathon. You don't get to host the Lombardi Trophy if you head into the locker room with the lead at halftime.

Ask the Atlanta Falcons. They know better than anyone how that works.

My only criticism of the Keter, Mnangat, and Hailu is that if they did let Jei win, they could've done it a little less conspicuously. According to reports, these four guys were together for most of the race, yet an alleged race-throwing waited until the very end.

One dude threw his arm out to slow the other two down within what looked like a hundred yards.

They could've had one guy stop to tie his shoe at Mile 9, another guy pulls up to massage a cramp at Mile 11, and the last guy pretends to roll an ankle at Mile 13, and no one would be the wiser.

If I was going to throw a half marathon (or let's be honest, a 5K fun run at most) that's how I would have done it.

I'm sure the marathon organizers will dig in and get to the bottom of this… or at least pretend to.