Action has been taken against two Kenyan athletes at the heart of the 2024 Beijing Half Marathon fiasco in which the duo and their Ethiopian counterpart were captured on camera slowing down and urging China’s He Jie to breeze past and win the race.
A probe was launched with claims emerging that the four were not competing in the race, but were pacesetters.
The organizers were at odds to explain why the four who they claimed were pacesetters were awarded as winners of the race.
Kenya’s Robert Keter and Willy Mnangat and Ethiopia’s Dejene Hailu were captured on camera slowing down to let He Jie pass them and appeared to gesture towards the finish line, seemingly encouraging He Jie to take the lead, while simultaneously slowing down their pace.
The fiasco stirred up controversy with the Chinese Athletics Association swinging into action and vowing to stall such occurrences in the future.
