Apparently, it’s running week here at OFT. Chinese racer He Jie is obviously very fast, capable of completing a half-marathon in a little over an hour. However, his victory at Sunday’s Beijing Half Marathon has raised quite a few eyebrows, as it did not appear he was actually the fastest racer out there.

Willy Mnangat seemingly waving He Jie ahead at the finish line
[Image and Video: @whyyoutouzhele]

The video is pretty damning.¹ It seems to clearly show the three African runners holding back, to allow He to win. Kenyan runner Willy Mnangat initially stated that he let the Chinese athlete pass “because he is my friend”.² However, he has now claimed he was hired as a pacer, despite the race listing him as a competitor.

Whatever happened here, it stinks to high heaven.

Footnotes:

1. Archived here. ↩︎

2. It’s unclear to me if that capitalization is correct or not. Did Mnangat say “because he is my friend” or “because He is my friend”? The end result is the same, but the man’s name presents an interesting conundrum. ↩︎