Two women punished for cycling parts of a half marathon – runnersworld.com

Two women have been punished for cycling parts of a half marathon, which took place on 8 September in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in China.

The two women, Yang and Song, were spotted sharing a bike to cycle parts of the 13.1 mile race. The organisers have confirmed today their results will be cancelled and they will be banned from all further Chengdu Women’s Half Marathon races.

A running boom has swept China over recent years, but this is by no means the first time a Chinese race has been met with controversy. More than 250 runners were disqualified from a half marathon last November after cheating, then race marshals came under fire for handing a Chinese runner her national flag, costing her first place in the Suzhou Marathon. Then in March this year another runner was banned for cycling parts of the Xuzhou International Marathon.