{"id":90781,"date":"2023-12-20T16:57:23","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T16:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explorersweb.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=90781"},"modified":"2023-12-20T16:57:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T16:57:23","slug":"china-gansu-marathon-organizers-jailed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explorersweb.com\/china-gansu-marathon-organizers-jailed\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Organizers Jailed Over 2021 Ultramarathon That Killed 21 Runners"},"content":{"rendered":"

An infamous 2021 ultra-marathon that tragically killed 21 people has come full circle on its organizers.<\/p>\n

The northwest China race turned deadly overnight on May 22, 2021, when desperate weather conditions suddenly befell the course. Disoriented runners scattered, either to safety or calamity.<\/p>\n

Now, seven people who helped plan the event will face jail time. A court in Baiyin, Gansu (where the race occurred) leveled three- to five-year sentences on the individuals, state news agency Xinhua reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dereliction of duty and \u201corganizing a large-scale event that led to a significant safety incident\u201d were among the charges.<\/p>\n

Officials allowed the race to go on despite warnings of coming harsh weather. The forecasts came to bear early in the 100-kilometer outing. Rain and hail pounded the thinly clad runners, along with wind so strong that it flattened some to the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to stand up straight and move forward,\u201d one survivor told Xinhua News at the time<\/a>. \u201cWhen the wind was the strongest, I had to grab the ground with both hands to avoid being blown away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt nothing but cold\u2026I fainted halfway down the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty-one-year-old Liang Jing, a world-class ultramarathoner, was among the deceased. And while China\u2019s long-distance running community had flourished leading up to the incident, it\u2019s now laboring under tightened regulations. Beijing\u2019s sport ministry suspended events, citing \u201cnational safety standards,\u201d shortly after the incident, The Guardian<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An infamous 2021 ultra-marathon that tragically killed 21 people has come full circle on its organizers. The northwest China race turned deadly overnight on May 22, 2021, when desperate weather conditions suddenly befell the course. Disoriented runners scattered, either to safety or calamity. Now, seven people who helped plan the event will face jail time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4736,"featured_media":26780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[24,1310],"coauthors":[150],"class_list":["post-90781","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-endurance","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChinese Organizers Jailed Over 2021 Ultramarathon That Killed 21 Runners » Explorersweb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Seven people face jail time resulting from the May 2021 race, where the weather suddenly turned vicious, but was forecast.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/explorersweb.com\/china-gansu-marathon-organizers-jailed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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