Foreign athletes run in the Taiyuan International Marathon Race 2015 in Shanxi Province on September 13, 2015. Photo: IC

Too Lazarus, an Ethiopian long-distance runner, told the Global Times on Sunday that he thinks Chinese marathons are the best in the world. What sets the races in the Middle Kingdom apart from their peers? The amount of cash he can make.

"I can make much more money than in Europe, and they pay it in time, which is very good," Lazarus said.

Lazarus is one of many foreign athletes who earn a living by running marathons in China. As the number of marathons being held grows at an incredible rate, some foreign runners have moved to the country to earn a living in the fast lane, according to athletes and race organizers.

A total of 31 officially registered races were held in China in November alone, compared with the 51 marathons that were held in the whole of last year. The number of events held in the years between 2011 and 2013 was 22, 33 and 39 respectively, according to the website of the Chinese Athletic Association (CAA).

An industry has sprung up around these races, with specialized agents that train athletes and bring them to China where they can dominate local races, Zheng Jian, a former marathon runner and current sport journalist, told the Global Times.



Full speed ahead

Lazarus said he runs marathons because his winnings allow him to take care of his family back home. "This is the only way I can earn to feed my family," he said.

In 2015 Lazarus won several prizes, including the $20,000 top prize in September's Shenyang Marathon in Liaoning Province. After finishing a marathon in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province on Sunday he flew to the US on Tuesday to run another race. While Lazarus did not win any money in Nanjing this time, the top prize was won by another African athlete.

Athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia have won much of the prize money on offer in China's marathons that involve foreigners in 2015 so far, according to announcements on the websites of around 10 of China's most prestigious marathons.

At China's most prominent long-distance races - the Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen, Fujian Province marathons - no male Chinese runner won any prize money. Of the 24 female prize-winners at the three races, only seven came from China.

"I know more than 200 African athletes who changed their life by running in China, today they have their own farms, houses and cars [at home], but before that they could not even buy a bicycle," Faith Wanthana, a Thailand-based marathon agent told the Global Times on Monday.

Wu Ming, former member of the Chinese national long-distance running team, told the Global Times that Chinese professional and amateur runners see their African competitors in a positive light.

"They deserve prizes for their hard training, and organization committees can set special awards and prizes for amateur participants and Chinese runners to encourage them," added Wu.

For example, the Beijing International Marathon (Beima) has a special prize for the top three amateur runners in different age groups.

Many foreign competitors, mostly those from African countries, run marathons for a living, as opposed to Chinese athletes, who are mostly just interested in participating, said Wu.

Some competitions, especially those that call themselves "international" races, require the participation of a certain number of foreign runners from a variety of countries, Ma Ning, an employee of the organization committee of Zhengzhou, Henan Province's Zhengkai International Marathon Competition told the Global Times.

In addition to prize money, some newly launched events actually pay foreign athletes to attend, added Ma.

To regulate the booming sector the CAA capped the prize money for half-marathons that are held in conjunction with full marathons to 10,000 yuan ($1,562) in April last year. The authorities also made it a rule that men who come first in full marathons must complete the race within 2:13:00 to receive the full prize money in a registered event. Female champions must complete races within 2:32:00.

Apart from professional runners, foreign students are also racing while they are studying in China.

"If I can get money to cover my tuition fees, why not, it can keep my family happy and that's the first thing that stays in my heart," Tewodros Ayele Abate, a sophomore student of medicine at Zhengzhou University who has won marathons in the city told the Global Times Saturday.

Ethiopian runners outperform their Chinese counterparts because they grew up in a high-altitude region with thinner air, which makes it easy for them to run in cities closer to sea-level in China, Abate added. 

Athlete industry

The winner of the Nanjing International Competition and Lazarus both use the same agent, Tao Shaoming, a former Chinese national long-distance running team coach who has signed up 170 marathon runners.

Tao told the Global Times that he now operates three training camps in Kenya, two in Ethiopia and one in Uganda.

Athletes usually take over 85 percent of the prize after tax, said Tao. Agents can be roughly divided into two groups, those who just serve as managers for runners and organize their activities, and those who seek out athletes and train them.

The latter type earns much more but they are rare, said Tao.

Some go to African sport schools to find promising athletes and then train them, or sign up young people that have already performed well in races. Agents will then help them contact race organization committees and apply for visas, sometimes even covering their registration and flight fees, agents told the Global Times.

"Though some win substantial prizes, they don't win prizes every time," said Faith, adding that some athletes cheat their managers and fly back home after winning the prize money without sharing it with their agent.
Newspaper headline: Going for gold