Chinese military athletes disqualified for ‘extensive cheating’

A team of athletes from China has been disqualified from the Military World Games (MWG), hosted this week in the country’s Wuhan province, for cheating.

According to the BBC, the Chinese orienteering team finished first, second and fourth in the women’s middle-distance race and second among the men.

However, after complaints of cheating were lodged by delegations from Russia, Switzerland, France, Poland and Austria, the International Orienteering Federation (IOF), whose rules govern MWG competitions, annulled the results.

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The federation said the event “was unfortunately overshadowed by extensive cheating by the Chinese team” and confirmed that it had also rejected an appeal against the disqualification from the Chinese athletes.

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Orienteering is a foot race involving small teams, who use a compass and map to navigate a path through complex terrain to reach a finish line, Business Insider reports.

However, the IOF said it was “discovered and proven” that the Chinese teams had “received illegal assistance both by spectators in the terrain, markings, and small paths prepared for them and which only they were aware of”.

The IOF, which deferred to a jury for the decision, said that it “takes the actions of the Chinese team very seriously and is pleased to see that the IOF rules regarding the fairness of competition were enforced by the jury”.

The Guardian says that the developments are an “embarrassing episode for China”, which was hosting the games for the first time. The paper reports that the country’s president, Xi Jinping, attended the opening ceremony, and Beijing hoped that the event would “build closer ties between the People’s Liberation Army and other armies and bolster the Chinese military’s profile”.

Like the Olympics, the Military World Games are held every four years, CNN says, with the inaugural competition held in Rome in 1995. More than 9,000 athletes from 109 countries are taking part and the event is due to end on 30 October.