I know that God forbids it, but I do anyway.
Posted on 12/01/2018 7:36:21 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A half marathon in China made international news for all the wrong reasons: Hundreds of participants were caught cheating at the Shenzhen Half Marathon on November 25.
Officials punished 258 runners for cheating. That included 18 runners with fake bib numbers, three people who competed as different registered runners, and 237 entrants who cut the course, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
While the runners using fake bibs and the imposters were banned for life, the 237 athletes who cut the course will receive a two-year ban from the event. Those runners were actually caught on video by a traffic camera, which showed hundreds of entrants running through bushes to cut 2 to 3K from the full half marathon distance.
The fake bibs were revealed by a photographer who took a picture of two runners wearing identical numbers during the race.
“We deeply regret the violations that occurred during the event. Marathon running is not simply exercise, it is a metaphor for life, and every runner is responsible for him or herself,” race organizers told Xinhua in a statement.
Road races are currently on the rise in China. There were 1,072 marathons and races of other distances held in the country last year—a big increase from the 22 in 2011, according to Chinese Athletics Association data cited in the article.
While the number of runners caught cheating in this event was extensive, it’s by no means the first time it’s occurred in a race. In fact, just in the past few years, there have been examples of mass cheating at the 2015 Honolulu Marathon, the 2017 Disney World Marathon, and the 2017 and 2018 Mexico City Marathon.
But one reason the cheating at the Shenzhen race is getting so much attention is simply because there’s solid video evidence of it actually occurring, Marathon Investigation founder Derek Murphy wrote on his site.
“This happens on a comparable scale at nearly every race where the course provides the opportunity to cut across a street to shave a few miles. Maybe it’s 100 runners, maybe it’s 300,” his post read. “We should stop acting shocked. Until cheating runners have real consequences, there is no deterrent to this behavior.”
In other areas in China, race officials are taking high-tech steps to guard against race cheating: For instance, the Hangzhou International Marathon planned on using facial recognition software as a way to prevent fraud in this year’s event. In 2017, the Beijing Half Marathon used similar technology to guard against cheating, too.
I know that God forbids it, but I do anyway.
Chinese students cheat at a much higher percentage at US universities.
You can’t walk more than 10 feet in China without seeing a new camera. What the hell did these people think? And now what happens to their Social Score? They’re SCREWED.
What’s ne. The Chinese always cheat
237 athletes who cut the course is a lot....I tend to think a few blazed the path and others just followed.....mob mentality.
250! LOL, that’s hillarious.
Probably ONE guy cheated and the rest followed, not realizing they had strayed from the course. Now THAT's funny.
I’m not so sure I believe that, though your statement may be an accurate one. When I was in school it was only a handful that never cheated. I cheated in French, because I had no interest in learning another language, LOL. My teacher never bought it either. 8>) I failed and had to repeat in the summer school. Still did poorly there, but managed to squeak by.
Yep...because that’s just too many doing the same thing the same way.
When does the government wake up and say OMG we have an issue. Lol. Their culture and people have an issue that isn’t easily solved.
I’ve seen great clouds of small feeder fish all move perfectly in concert.
Maybe those runners have fish brains.
That’s really gonna hit their social credit score.
It’s China. So which life are they banned from?
Cheating is part of Chinese culture.
Mainland Chinese are not known for being honest people.
How well was the course marked? I haven’t done much running but when I did I followed the people in front of me.
United States: Duty, Honor, Country
Red China: Lie, Cheat, Steal
Nuts. Lots of people cheat at running races.
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