Chinese Marathons Hazardous to Runners

The city of Quingyuan, China, has discovered marathon running—with somewhat mixed results. Thousands of runners were injured while running a recent marathon in Quingyuan, a city of 3.7 million people in south China’s Guangdong province. According to the local press, medical workers performed first aid on participants more than 12, 000 times, treating 10, 000 muscle spasms and 1, 700 sprains. They called for support from ambulances 23 times and hospitalized 17 people. Doctors reported that five runners were in critical condition.

China held a total of 134 marathons last year, 83 more than in 2014, attracting 1.5 million participants, according to data from the Chinese Athletic Association.

The proliferation of events is part of an ambitious program announced in 2014 by China’s state council. The goal was to boost the country’s sports economy to a value of 5 trillion yuan by 2025—a 15-fold increase.

Local governments like to host marathons because the runs can bring cities prestige as well as tourist dollars, experts say. The races can also be big business for the firms that organize them. In its interim report in 2015, Wisdom Sports Group, a Hong-Kong listed company that specializes in hosting athletic events in mainland China, said it took in 66.9 million yuan ($10 million) gross profit in the first six months of last year from running events.

The marathon craze has also been marked by mishaps as inexperienced organizers scramble to host races—and inexperienced runners enthusiastically sign up to participate in them. Experts have become increasingly worried about flaws in race management and participants’ poor knowledge of their own health conditions. Five participants died while running in Chinese marathons in 2015, according to a Chinese media tally. The marathons have also come about because of the Chinese people’s increased affluence and the fact they are paying more and more attention to their own individual health and state of fitness.