A screenshot of on-site video online

The Hong Kong, China Association of Athletics Affiliates issued a statement on Monday to apologize for the accident that a finish tape was mistakenly retrieved before the men's champion from Chinese mainland crossed the finish line at the East Asia Half Marathon Championships on Sunday, after being questioned about intentionally pulling back the finishing line for mainland athletes.

The Bank of China (Hong Kong) Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HK Section) Half Marathon 2023, the first major sports event held on the section of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, was held on Sunday. 

The incident occurred at the event on Sunday. The Organizing Committee made a mistake when the East Asia Half Marathon Championships men's champion, runner Xie Dongsheng, crossed the finish line.

Later, when welcoming the winning women's half marathon champion from Uganda, event officials accidentally allowed the East Asia Half Marathon men's 1st runner up from Japan to cross and break the finish tape, according to a statement. The Organizing Committee expressed its sincere apology for these two unfortunate incidents.

The video of the finish line incident also went viral online, sparking criticism among netizens, with some questioning whether it was targeted at mainland athletes and others criticizing the management for being disorganized.

The topic received more than 38 million views on X-like Sina Weibo on Tuesday. "I finally understand why most races have separate finish lines for men and women. It doesn't have much impact on the general runners, but it seems to have an impact on elite athletes," one netizen commented.

Some netizens agreed that this incident did not seem intentional, but more like a mistake. "It is clearly a mistake made by the on-site staff," another one said.

It's not the first time that HKSAR-related sport events have encountered problems. There have been incidents in the past during international events where the wrong song was played instead of the Chinese national anthem, one netizen said. The netizen called for continued efforts to correct these mistakes.

The two races were held simultaneously at the same location on Sunday, with intense competition in the men's and women's categories and with finish times very close to each other, the Association explained.

The incident did not affect the results and award ceremony, the organizer confirmed. They added that they hope to optimize operations to avoid similar incidents from happening again.

The organizer sent congratulations to the half marathon men's and women's champions, Geoffrey Toroitich Kipchumba from Kenya and Sarah Chelangat from Uganda, and China's Xie Dongsheng and Xu Shuangshuang, for winning the first East Asia Half Marathon Championships men's and women's titles.

About 8,000 people, including world-class runners and movie star Chow Yun-fat, joined the 21.1-kilometer race, according to rthk.hk.

The 55-kilometer Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the world's longest bridge-and-tunnel sea crossing, which becomes one of the important hubs to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to the marathon's official website.

Global Times