Accident replay
Nearly 30,000 professional and amateur runners took part in the
Beijing International Marathon on October 17.
Liu Hongbin, a 20-year-old participant, collapsed 19 km into the race around 11 AM and was sent to Haidian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after attempts to revive him failed.
Another racer Hu Shouli, a 64-year-old male retiree, collapsed with only 100 meters to go at about 2 PM.
Eleven other runners were sent to hospital for emergency treatment and one woman from Tsinghua University was in a serious condition for over a week before being sent home.
No one takes the rap
Shortly after the accident the Chinese Athletic Association, who organized the event, publicized a pre-event agreement signed by participants protecting the CAA from any responsibility for injuries or deaths -- thus no compensation would be made to relatives.
Liu Hongbin was a sophomore at
Beijing Jiaotong University. His uncle Shi Litao said the family hadn't known that Liu had run in the race until they got news of Liu's death from the university the next day. His father Liu Xijian, a farmer from
Lianyungang City of eastern Jiangsu Province, rushed to
Beijing with five other family members on October 18. "I want to know the truth. Last year I sent a healthy man here. How did the school erase my child?" Liu's lip quivered as he spoke.
According to his classmates, Liu was diagnosed with protrusion of the lumbar intervertebral disc in senior high school. But his overall fitness was good and he continued long-distance running in college.
Wang Xiangping, director of
Beijing Jiaotong University's News Center, noted that the school's sports department had warned students to call the "120" emergency numbers if they felt ill.
On whether students had a physical checkup, Wang said it was unnecessary for the school to hold physical examinations or provide health certifications due to the disclaimer released by the CAA. So they only attached a declaration at the end of the application form asking students to have physical exams and buy insurance themselves.
"The 15 yuan the organization charged each athlete was only spent on assembly and transportation activities and runners were asked to pay for insurance themselves. However, most participants, like Liu Hongbin, didn't pay for it." Wang added.
Wang Dexian, coach of the women's champion Sun Yingjie, suggested that, since all professional athletes have to receive strict physical exams before the competition, amateurs should also be offered a physical checkup. "If the organizer doesn't ask for it, they must bear responsibility. If the organizer does but the school doesn't put it into practice, the school should take the blame."
Glorious or ignoble marathon?
Liu's death reminds people that among the 30,000 or so racers, more than one third are university students. Is physical training so popular on campus that they all scrambled to get involved?
A female student surnamed Li from
Beijing Jiaotong University revealed that she had two goals: to keep fit through physical exercise, and to gain course credits by showing her participant's certificate. She said that, despite only being worth one to three points, "It's still very important to me as one point enables me to exceed many other postgraduate examinees."
One student from Tsinghua University echoed Li's thoughts: "I heard that we could get 90 points in the PE examination after finishing the race, so many of my classmates ran."
Tsinghua University boasted the largest student group with more than 6,000 runners participating.
Another university student who finished the entire race said, "I can do it without water, the towel or the souvenirs. I only want the certificate to show my success. I made it for the piece of paper."
Disordered organization
The Chinese Athletic Association stated in its announcement on October 18 that its commission, together with the
Beijing Board of Health, had arranged for medical first aid before the race to insure timely treatment for the injured, including six treatment spots, four ambulances and five hospitals near the race.
Somehow, a host that had already held over 20 successful events this time provided only a host of errors: the qualification checkups were useless, water provision ended whilst some were still running and professional runners were pooled with amateurs. In addition, without sufficient notification, some missed their adult education entrance examination because of traffic measures.
The event organizer promised that each runner who completed the route would get a certificate. But the certificates, even the souvenirs and the towels, had run out within the first five hours. A representative of the commission explained that they hadn't expected so many amateurs to finish the race so had not prepared enough.
A runner who refused to be named complained that most of the attendees were amateurs and they hadn't been provided with water after 22 km. Wang Dawei, deputy director of the commission, said that this was due to the race timetable. "The runners should finish the first 5 km within 25 minutes, and after 25 minutes all the commission staff moved away."
As for the physical examination, the organization said that in 1981 the number of the participants was only 200 and all of them had received physical examinations before the race. However, as more have entered the event, with numbers soaring to almost 30,000 this year, they were too short-staffed.
Shen Chunde, another deputy director of the commission, clarified that it is impossible to provide physical examinations for all the runners, so "we entrusted many organizations with the checkup, such as travel agencies for foreigners, the running clubs for senior citizens and universities for students."
"What we can do is to help racers know more about the marathon, but there will still be no physical examination in the future," Wang Dawei said.
Beijing will hold a series of other big sporting events before the 2008 Olympics, but whilst venues can be built with money and cement blocks and festive atmospheres with crowds and attractions, there are other aspects that need more thought and humane consideration.
Protecting the health and lives of participants is clearly one that needs more concerted action.
