"Who is he even pacing", "This is not new" - Fans react to an official pacer winning the Ochsner Sport Zurich Marathon

The 2024 iteration of the Oschner Sport Zurich Marathon in Singapore has grabbed the attention of fans on social media after an official pacer was seen crossing the finish line first.

A video from the marathon went viral on X (formerly Twitter), where the pacer is seen attaining the first position and there are no runners to be seen near him. A pacer is a runner who helps other runners run the race at a certain pace and assist participants in reaching their marathon goals.

Witnessing the pacer win the title at the Ochsner Sport Zurich Marathon, fans provided their opinions on this incident. One fan stated:

"Who is he even pacing? No one in sight for a long while; let him win please."

Another noted that this has occurred previously in marathons, tweeting:

"This is not new."

One fan wrote that pacers deserved to win if they were faster than the athletes:

"Hahaha if the elites in a race are below the standard of the pacers, the pacers deserve to take it."

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The Beijing Half Marathon incident

Recently, another incident involving pacers recently took place at the Beijing Half Marathon on April 15.

Three pacers deliberately let Chinese racer He Jie win the race when they were clearly winning the marathon. In the final few meters, they gestured for He to overtake them by signaling him towards the finish line.

This win was questioned by the marathon world and an investigation was set up on the same. The marathon's organizing committee opened up about the same with Sports Star, saying:

"The organizing committee attaches great importance to the issue raised by netizens about the results of the (race). A special investigation team has been set up to conduct an investigation, and the results of the investigation will be released to the public in a timely fashion."

One of the pacers among the three, Willy Mnangat, revealed that he was not in the race to compete.

"I was not there to compete. It was not a competitive race for me," Mnangat said.

He Jie and the pacemakers were eventually stripped of their medals after the investigation proved that they slowed down for letting the Chinese athlete win. The organizing committee then placed the blame on Xtep, a Chinese sports equipment manufacturer which sponsored the event and also sponsored He.

It was claimed that the company made a mistake by listing the pacers on the list of competitors. Xtep has since been disqualified as a partner of the Beijing Half Marathon.