Things got a little weird at the end of the Beijing Half Marathon on Sunday, when He Jie, a member of China’s marathon team, crossed the finish line—after apparently having been waved ahead by the three African runners who’d been running with him the whole time, and who seemed to slow down and stay behind him at the end. He won the race with a time of 1:03:44, followed by Dejene Hailu Bikila of Ethiopia and Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat of Kenya, who tied for second with 1:03:45, NBC News reports. The finish is now under investigation, the BBC reports.
The strange ending got a lot of attention—Mark Dreyer, author of a book about China and sports, said on X that the African runners “clearly” let He win in what appeared to be a “tacit agreement,” and called the whole thing “extremely odd.” In another post, he explained it was “highly unusual” for African runners to “let a Chinese runner win so obviously,” hypothesizing that there must have been a financial incentive for the African runners to do so.
Viewers were similarly baffled by the footage, which went viral online, and the Beijing Sports Bureau and race organizers both said they were investigating the situation. Mnangat later admitted to the South China Morning Post he let He win “because he is my friend” and that he was not compensated for doing so, nor was he asked to do so. He later claimed, however, that he and the other two African runners were “pacemakers” trying to help He beat the Chinese half-marathon record (which he did not manage to do). The other two second-place finishers have not commented publicly. (More China stories.)
