Disqualified Chinese marathon runners hired impostors and used vehicles

More than 30 competitors at the Xiamen International marathon earlier this month have had their results cancelled because of cheating. It was reported that some runners hired impostors to run for them.

All the runners were ranked in the top 100 of the men's race at the event, according to the Jiefang Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Shanghai Communist Party.



Organisers found video footage that revealed that some runners had carried the time-recording microchips of others so that one runner would register two or more results on passing the finish line, the report said. Others made their way around at least some of the course in vehicles, while some hired impostors, it added.

The motivation for the cheating was not necessarily just for prestige, the report suggested, noting that most of the cheats had times under two hours 34 minutes. That is the minimum standard required for high school students to get extra credits for China's highly competitive college entrance examinations.