“Dragged along, gasping for breath”... Chinese man runs half-marathon with 9-year-old son tethered by the waist

[Financial News] A man in China who tried to complete a half-marathon course with a rope tied around his 9-year-old son’s waist, all but dragging him along, has been banned from competing for three years by the organizers. As marathon fever has recently intensified in China, adults’ reckless actions in bringing minors onto extremely dangerous courses have drawn fierce public criticism.
On the 24th, local time, foreign media including Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that a man was spotted running with himself tethered by a rope to a 9-year-old boy at a marathon in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, on the 18th, sparking controversy online.
Footage from the event showed a child with a rope tied around his waist struggling to keep up with an adult man’s fast pace, panting heavily as he ran behind him. According to witnesses, the child was forced to run as much as 18 km while tied to the rope. After a video of the two, believed to be father and son, was released, local internet users sharply criticized the dangerous behavior as bordering on child abuse.
According to the official Zhengzhou Marathon rules, only adults aged 20 or older may enter the full marathon, while participants in the half-marathon must be at least 18. A 9-year-old child is ineligible to participate in the first place. As the controversy spread, the Zhengzhou Marathon organizing committee deleted all of the man’s race results and imposed a severe penalty, banning him from competing for the next three years.
This is not the first time that adults’ rule violations and participation in Chinese marathons with children have come under scrutiny. At the Taiyuan Marathon in Shaanxi Province last month, an adult participant handed their race bib to a minor and had them run the course, earning a two-year ban. Earlier this year, at the Standard Chartered Marathon in Hong Kong, a man was stopped by race officials and removed from the course after sprinting along with a newborn in one arm and a smartphone in the other.
Medical experts warn that children who are still growing could suffer life-threatening physical injuries if pushed to run long distances.
Guo Jianjun, a professor at the Center for Sports-Medicine Integration and Innovation at Capital University of Physical Education and Sports in China, pointed out, “Because minors’ skeletons are not fully developed, they face a very high risk of tiny cracks in their bones or fractures if they run long distances.”
Chen Xueli, head of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Beijing Shijitan Hospital, also said, “Children have a poorer ability to regulate their body temperature than adults, and their cardiovascular systems are not fully developed,” stressing, “It is extremely dangerous to force minors to participate in marathons, where crowds are dense and emergencies are frequent.”
[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter