4 Chinese language runners have been disqualified from Sunday’s Customary Chartered Hong Kong Half Marathon and 10K after being discovered sporting the fallacious bibs. Not like typical bib-swapping tales, this incident was reportedly a mishap, leaving the winner and runner-up within the half-marathon and 10K with out prize cash.
Chinese language distance runners He Yingbing and Solar Xiaoyang had initially completed first and second within the half-marathon, in 65:36 and 66:11, respectively, ending greater than a minute quicker than the third-place finisher, Hong Kong’s Vincent Lam (67:38). As officers reviewed Yingbing’s and Xiaoyang’s outcomes, they stated each athletes weren’t sporting the proper bibs.
There was additionally a 3rd runner concerned, who completed as runner-up within the males’s 10K; he shares the identical agent as Yingbing and Xiaoyang. He wore a bib assigned to a different athlete, Lan Jiehuai, who completed sixth and was the fourth runner to be disqualified. Due to the mix-up, three of the 4 males missed out on greater than US$800 in prize cash.
Race officers stated the priority for skilled runners sporting the fallacious bib is that many main races have a qualifying time requirement. Some races provide assured or precedence entry if individuals can present a timing certificates from a acknowledged occasion, which suggests they don’t have to undergo the poll, and have a greater likelihood of securing a spot if they’ve a quicker athlete run the time.
The Customary Chartered Hong Kong Marathon officers haven’t launched additional particulars on these runners, however confirmed that every one 4 disqualified skilled athletes had the identical supervisor/agent.
In accordance with the South China Morning Put up, the bib mix-up seems to have stemmed from their agent giving them the fallacious bibs earlier than the race. Since marathon guidelines require runners to put on the bibs assigned to them, all 4 have been stripped of their outcomes. Whereas race officers acknowledged the error could not have been intentional, they harassed that correct identification verification at bib pick-up would’ve prevented the problem.
Officers haven’t dominated out additional motion as an investigation into the mix-up continues. “As as to whether we are going to take any additional disciplinary motion past disqualifying their outcomes this 12 months, we have to collect extra info and communicate with the runners to know the entire scenario,” stated Dennis Ng Yu-Ho, government director of the Hong Kong/China Affiliation of Athletics Associates (HKCAAA) in an article.
Regardless of in case you’re ending on the entrance or again of the pack, this mix-up serves as a reminder to double-check your race bib to make sure it’s yours earlier than toeing the road.