Chinese Marathon Winner Loses Medal After Fellow Runners Let Him Win

Earlier this week, a half-marathon in Beijing went under the microscope after it appeared that several runners threw the race to let a member of the Chinese National team cross the finish line in first.

Well, it appears that where there was smoke, there was race-fixing, but one of the runners involved had an interesting explanation.

The video showing the final stretch of the race went viral this week. In it, Kenyan runners Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat and Ethiopia's Dejene Hailu can be seen running along China's He Jie.

Then within sight of the line, one of the runners got the others to slow down and waved Jie ahead of them. He crossed the line in first with Keter, Mnangat, and Hailu finishing a second behind him.

However, it's pretty clear that the three waved Jie through since there was no attempt to even hide it. The only thing that would've been more obvious would've been if they picked Jie up and carried him across the line.

But there was more to this. Mnangat told BBC Africa that he along with Keter and Hailu were running in the race as pacemakers to help Jie break a record.

"I was not there to compete," Mnangat said. "It was not a competitive race for me."

Unfortunately for Jie, he failed to break the record, and even more unfortunately, no one ever told race organizers that this was the plan.

That's probably something they would have liked to have been given a heads-up on.

According to Fox News Digital, all four of the runners have lost their medals, while the company that organized the half-marathon — Zhong’ao Lupao Sports Management Co. — is barred from organizing events.

And to think, this was all for a half-marathon. Not even the full 26.2.