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BBC News Published image captionZhu Keming in the cave dwelling where he sheltered the stricken athletes A Chinese shepherd has been hailed as a hero for saving six runners in an ultramarathon race in which 21 died. Zhu Keming said he was grazing his sheep on Saturday in the northern province of Gansu when rain began to fall and temperatures plummeted. Nearby, the sudden weather change had caught out runners in a 100km (60-mile) cross-country race. Mr Zhu took refuge in a cave where he stored emergency food and clothes, but while inside he saw a stricken runner. The shepherd told Chinese state media that he escorted the runner into the cave, massaged his hands and feet, and lit a fire to dry his clothes. ....
May 25, 2021 The ultramarathon in rugged Gansu province. Screengrab/YouTube/CCTV The Chinese central government and state media have criticised “certain” officials for putting profit above safety when organising extreme sports events after 21 competitors died in an ultramarathon. The country’s top disciplinary watchdog has also ordered the provincial authorities to carry out an in-depth investigation into Saturday’s event, after runners, most of whom were not carrying warm weather clothing, were hit by icy rain on the mountain trail. The 100km Yellow River Stone Forest Park event in the northwestern province of Gansu had been billed as one of the most challenging events in Chinese sporting history and attracted a total of 172 competitors. ....
On Saturday, 21 athletes died during the fourth annual Yellow River Stone Forest Park 100K, a race held in Gansu, China. The weather turned bad about 15 miles in and more than 6,000 feet above sea level, after the leading runners left the second checkpoint and started an exposed 3,000-foot climb. Suddenly, the route was hammered with a mess of freezing rain and hail, and temperatures plummeted to near freezing at higher elevations. “At the bottom of the mountain there was already wind and rain, and the higher you climbed the bigger the rain and wind got,” blogged Zhang Xiaotao, a racer who survived the storm. “Halfway up, the rain started to mix with hail and kept smashing into my face, and my eyes started getting obscured and blurry. A few places, you couldn’t make out the route clearly.” Another racer he came across on the trail, he wrote, “had begun to shake all over his body.” ....
Shepherd hailed for saving six in deadly Chinese ultramarathon bbc.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bbc.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.