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BEIJING — Twenty-one people running a mountain ultramarathon
have died in northwestern China after hail, freezing rain and
gale-force winds hit the high-altitude race, state media
reported Sunday.

After an all-night rescue operation in freezing temperatures
involving more than 700 personnel, rescuers were able to confirm
that 151 people were safe, out of a total of 172 participants.
Twenty-one had died, according to the official Xinhua News
Agency, which said the runners suffered from physical discomfort
and the sudden drop in temperature.

The runners were racing on an extremely narrow mountain path at
an altitude reaching 6,500-9,800 feet. The 100-kilometer, or 60-
mile race was held Saturday in the Yellow River Stone Forest
tourist site in Baiyin city in Gansu province.

Participants were not rookies. One of the deceased was a well-
known runner Liang Jing, who had won a 100 kilometer race in
Ningbo, reported the Paper, a state-backed newspaper based in
Shanghai.

A woman who worked for the race organizer, Gansu Shengjing
Sports Culture Development Co., said there were no predictions
of extreme weather for the day of the race, according to Beijing
News, a paper owned by the Beijing city government.

However, Baiyin city's local branch of the National Early
Warning Information Center had warned for the past three days of
hail and strong winds.

The race also followed a relatively established course, having
been held four times, according to an account posted online by a
participant in the race who quit and managed to make his way to
safety.

But the weather caught them off guard, and on the morning of the
race Saturday, he already sensed things were not normal. The
runners were not dressed for winter-like conditions, many
wearing short-sleeved tops.

“I ran 2 kilometers before the starting gun fired to warm up ...
but the troublesome thing was, after running these 2 kilometers,
my body still had not heated up,” the competitor said in a first-
person account that has been viewed more than 100,000 times on
his WeChat account “Wandering about the South.”

He later told the Paper that the forecast the day prior to the
race did not predict the extreme weather they encountered.

The most difficult section, from kilometer mile 15 to mile 22,
climbed 3,280 feet. There, he said the path was just a mix of
stones and sand, and his fingers grew numb from the cold.

When he finally decided to turn back, he already felt dazed. He
said he was able to make it to safety and met a rescue crew. He
did not respond to a request for comment left on his social
media account.

Some runners farther along the course had fallen off the trail
into deep mountain crevices, according to a reporter for state
broadcaster CCTV. It was not clear how many of them survived.

Video footage showed rescuers in winter jackets in the pitch-
dark night searching with flashlights along steep hills and
narrow paths. Search operations ended by noon Sunday, rescuers
told Xinhua.

Online, some wondered what, if any preparations organizers had
made in the event of an emergency. The race organizer did not
immediately respond to calls seeking comment Sunday.

Baiyin city Mayor Zhang Xuchen held a news conference later
Sunday and profoundly apologized as the organizer of the event.
The government promised a full investigation.

“We express deep condolences and sympathy to the families of the
victims and the injured,” the mayor said.

Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan and news
researcher Henry Hou in Beijing contributed to this report.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/21-runners-die-extreme- weather-china-ultramarathon-n1268293
 

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* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)