纽约时报中文网 - 英文原版-英Did Three African Runners Let a Chinese Runner Win a Race in Beijing
April 17, 2024 3 min 492 words
《纽约时报》这篇报道的主要内容是：2002年北京马拉松比赛中，三名非洲选手疑似故意放慢速度，让中国选手获得冠军。报道援引了比赛现场人员和观众的采访，他们表示非洲选手在比赛末段似乎在放慢速度，甚至在交谈聊天，而中国选手则奋力保持领先。报道也提到中国媒体对这场比赛的报道，暗示了可能存在让中国选手获胜的默契。 对于这篇报道，我作为客观公正的评论员有如下评论： 首先，比赛结果是三名非洲选手位居前三，中国选手虽然获得冠军，但成绩较慢，这也许说明比赛过程有其不寻常之处。但《纽约时报》的报道也存在一些值得商榷之处。报道过度强调了“让胜”一词，而比赛现场观众的采访也可能只是个人印象，缺乏客观数据的支持。此外，报道没有深入探讨选手们赛后的反应和感想，也没有采访体育专家对比赛进行分析，而只是强调“让胜”这一敏感话题，这可能存在一定程度的倾向性。客观地说，马拉松比赛结果受多种因素影响，包括选手的体能状态天气情况赛道环境等。这场比赛的结果也许有其不寻常之处，但报道过于强调“让胜”而忽视了其他可能因素，存在一定程度的片面性。
After a grueling hour, there was little to separate the four runners as the finish line approached. But then, one extended his hand toward another and gestured, as if waving him forward. Seconds later, another runner did the same.
He Jie of China then strode ahead of the others, a recorded livestream of Sunday’s Beijing Half Marathon shows. The other three runners — Willy Mnangat and Robert Keter from Kenya, and Dejene Hailu from Ethiopia — fell into place just behind him, following from a short distance as He claimed first place.
The results of the half-marathon are now under investigation by the race’s organizers, after footage of the finish circulated online and led many to question whether the three African runners had deliberately slowed down.
He took first place with a time of 1 hour 3 minutes 44 seconds. Mnangat, Keter and Hailu tied for second place, one second later.
The four athletes ran in a group for much of the race, the livestream showed, ahead of the rest of the pack, with the African runners occasionally pulling slightly ahead.
But it was the final moments of the race, when Mnangat and Keter both appeared to gesture to He to run in front of the others, that raised questions.
The Beijing International Running Festival, which organized the event, said in a statement on Monday night that it had launched an investigation into the matter in response to online commentators’ “questions about the race’s results,” without naming the runners involved. The organizers had created “a special investigative team” to look into the matter, the statement said.
A spokeswoman for the Beijing Municipal Sports Bureau, the agency that oversees sports in the city, confirmed via phone on Tuesday morning that it was also investigating the race.
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment via Xtep, a sportswear company for which he is the spokesman. Keter and Hailu could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mnangat told The South China Morning Post that he was acting as a pacemaker — someone who runs along other athletes to help them maintain their speed but is not officially a competitor — for He. Mnangat did not immediately respond to a request for comment through his agent.
He, 25, is the 77th-ranked men’s marathoner globally, according to World Athletics. Last year, he won the Asian Games men’s marathon, and last month, he set a Chinese national record when he finished the Wuxi Marathon in 2:06:57.
This is not the first time distance runners in China have faced accusations of cheating, as the popularity of long distance running has surged in the country.
In 2018, 258 participants were penalized for cheating in the Shenzhen Half Marathon, with organizers accusing them of wearing fake bib numbers, hiring imposters and taking shortcuts, according to Chinese state media.
And in 2019, female runners were caught riding bikes in the Xuzhou International Marathon and the Chengdu Women’s Half Marathon.