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SHANGHAI, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) has released new rules to ban all the cheatings in marathon races as substitutes will face severe punishment.
The CAA released the new rules at the China marathon annual conference on Monday that will ban runners from the races they cheat in while a second offence means a life time ban from all CAA authorized running races.
The cheatings include substitution, wearing two (or more) timing chips, fake number bibs, illegal trade or transfer of number bibs and multi-runners relay.
Two Chinese runners died at the 2016 Xiamen (Haicang) International Half Marathon in eastern China's Fujian Province. One of the deceased was a substitute who wore someone else's number bib in order to qualify for the race. The registrant was banned permanently from the race, according to Xiamen' s local organizing committee.
Du Zhaocai, the CAA vice president, hoped the new rules will ring the bell for all marathon organizers and participants.
"The committees should take substitution as severe problem and we call on all runners to bear the spirit of sportsmanship and run with honesty," he said.
