3 amateur runners found cheating in Xiamen Intl Marathon

Three amateur runners were found cheating in the 2014 Xiamen International Marathon, held on Jan 2, the organizing committee confirmed on Tuesday.

The three runners, who finished second, sixth and seventh respectively in the amateur group, were deprived of their results and received two-year ban, the committee told Xinhua.

According to the committee, the cheaters finished the race in a relay which was caught by a commercial sports photo website, All-sports Community.

As many runners like to search their images on internet after the race, the website offers the service. This time, its pictures disclosed the cheatings.

Taking the second finisher for example, the pictures showed that the No. 14015 was attached to a short man wearing sun glasses when the race kicked off at 8:00 local time.

At 8:42, the number belonged to a tall man with sun glasses. At 9:48, another sun-glasses man with No. 14015 was running and finally became the runner-up of the whole race.

The sixth finisher with the number 9059 cheated in almost the same way. Furthermore, he ran with two time-recording macrochips, one for himself and the other for the No. 9061 runner.

The Xiamen International Marathon, one of the two leading marathons in China, is registered with International Marathons and Road Races in 2004 and is held on the first Saturday of January every year.

In the 2010 edition, 30 cheaters were caught. They ran for some senior high school students who wanted to get extra credits for entering colleges.

From then on, amateur runners under 20 have been banned from taking part in the race.

Analysts were stunned by the fact that the cheating occured again but in the amateur group aged from 20 to 40 this time as the money award (85-500 US dollars) for the amateur group is not that much to lure the fraud.

"Some students, especially sports majors, may need better ranks in great games to contribute to his credits in colleges," said Zhang Chunping, a professor of Beijing University of Physical Education.