Ethiopian runner forced to a stop at finish line
Ethiopian professional athlete Gelgelo Tona Outoya was crowned champion in the Nanning International Marathon on December 2, 2018. The race was the 13th Annual Nanning International Marathon and also the 36th Nanning Liberation Day Long-Distance Run. It is a part of the Run China event that started more than a year ago on April 21, 2017. In this year’s competition, the Ethiopian runner Gelgelo Tona Outoya finished first with a time of 2 hours 18 minutes, and 26 seconds. Right after he crossed the finish line, a volunteer from the China Athletics Association (中国田径协会) forced him to a stop and pulled him in front of the Run China banner to take pictures for the newspapers. Subsequently Gelgelo Tona Outoya collapsed onto the ground. Running a marathon which is 42,195 km requires a lot of energy and is hard for even professional athletes. Runners need to accurately match their speed with a precise running strategy and pace to finish the race at a faster speed and time. These athletes are like a high speed car: if a car is driving high speed on a highway, it takes some time for the car to slow down to a halting position from the high speed. Likewise, athletes need some time to slow down their running pace after a race in order to steady their breath and heart rate, since they utilize most, if not all, of their energy during the race. This is why runners like Gelgelo Tona Outoya would have barely any strength left by the time they cross the finish line.
Running a marathon which is 42,195 km requires a lot of energy and is hard for even professional athletes. Runners need to accurately match their speed with a precise running strategy and pace to finish the race at a faster speed and time. These athletes are like a high speed car: if a car is driving high speed on a highway, it takes some time for the car to slow down to a halting position from the high speed. Likewise, athletes need some time to slow down their running pace after a race in order to steady their breath and heart rate, since they utilize most, if not all, of their energy during the race. This is why runners like Gelgelo Tona Outoya would have barely any strength left by the time they cross the finish line.
This isn’t the first time that organizational workers from the China Athletics Association (中国田径协会) have interfered with the runners during or right after the races. The previous incident occurred in Suzhou Taihu during the Suzhou Taihu International Marathon a few month ago when a Chinese female runner Wei Jang was interrupted twice in the same race by the organization’s volunteers, who were attempting to hand her the Chinese national flag to wear when crossing the finish line. This interruption caused her to slow down, which gave her opponent an opportunity to surpass her at the last moment, and become the champion of the race.
Gelgelo Tona Outoya collapses after crossing the finish line Courtesy of French.china.org
by Andy Kim