The 8th Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon of 2017 Competition Rules

1.Host

Chinese Athletics Association

Sports Bureau of Jiangsu Province

2.Organizer

Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee

Suzhou Municipal Sports Bureau

Suzhou WE Sports and Culture Development Co., Ltd

3.Event Date & Venue

Date: March 12th, 2017(Sunday)

Time: 8:30

Venue: Moon Harbor, Suzhou Industrial Park Cultural Expo Center

4.Race Event

Male / Female Half Marathon (21.0975 KM)

Male / Female 14 KM Short Marathon (around 14 KM)

Male / Female Mini Marathon (around 4.5 KM)

Family Marathon (around 2.5 KM)

5.Race Route

i) Half Marathon

Moon Harbor, Suzhou Industrial Park Cultural Expo Center (Starting point) – Xiandai Avenue – Xinghu Street – Wangdun Road – Huachi Street – Yuying Road - Yuelang Street – Suzhou Avenue East - You’An Street – Jinrong Street - Zhongyuan Road - Xinghu Street - Xizhou Road – Rong’An Street - Xixi Road – Si’An Street– You’An Street - Xinghu Street - - Huanzhou Road – Xinhu Street -Jinji Lake Avenue – Ligongdi Road – Xingzhou Street – Rainbowalk - CrownePlaza  – Xiandai Avenue – Guanfeng Street – Moon Harbor, Suzhou Industrial Park Cultural Expo Center (Finish point). Entire race route is 21.0975 KM.

ii) 14 KM Short Marathon

Moon Harbor, Suzhou Industrial Park Cultural Expo Center (Starting point) – Xiandai Avenue – Xinghu Street – Wangdun Road – Huachi Street – Yuying Road - Yuelang Street – Suzhou Avenue East - You’An Street – Jinrong Street - Zhongyuan Road - Xinghu Street - Xizhou Road – Rong’An Street - Xixi Road - Si’An Street– You’An Street - Xinghu Street - Huanzhou Road – Xinghu Street -Jinji Lake Avenue – Ligongdi 4th Square (Finish point). Entire race route is around 14 KM.

iii) Mini Marathon

Moon Harbor, Suzhou Industrial Park Cultural Expo Center (Starting point) – Xiandai Avenue – Xinghu Street – Wangdun Road – Huachi Street – Yuying Road - Yuelang Street – Suzhou Expo Center (Finish point). Entire race route is around 4.5 KM.

iv) Family Marathon

Moon Harbor, Suzhou Industrial Park Cultural Expo Center (Starting point) – Xiandai Avenue – Xinghu Street – Wangdun Road (Yuanrong Times Square South) (Finish point). Entire race route is around 2.5 KM.

For detailed information, please refer to the Race Roadmap.

6.Participation Methods:

(A) Age requirement

1) Half Marathon and 14 KM Short Marathon participants shall be over 16 years old (born in or before the year of 2001);

2) Mini Marathon participants shall be over 12 years old (born in or before the year of 2005);

3) Family Marathon participants shall participate as a family unit, including two adults and one or two minors (all members shall have immediate family relationships), minors shall be between the 4 to12 years old;
4) Mini Marathon minor participants shall be accompanied by at least one guardian, and provide signature of guardian;
5) Participants over 65 years old shall have his/her immediate family member sign on the package pick up form;
6) For more details, please refer to the "Registration Notice".

B) Physical Condition Requirements:
Marathon is an athletic sport which requires great mental stamina and good endurance over long distances. It is also a high risk athletic sport with high physical requirements on participants. Those who desire to participant in marathon race shall be in good health condition, have running experience and training record over a long time period. Participant may register in any race event based on his/her own physical condition and capacity. Anyone who has any of the following diseases is not recommended to participate:

1.Congenital heart disease and rheumatic heart disease.

2.Hypertension and cardio-vascular disease.

3.Myocarditis and other heart diseases.

4.Coronary artery disease and server irregular heartbeat. 

5.Diabetes.

6.Having cold symptoms two weeks prior to the race.

7.Other illness that is not suitable for sports.

8.Other conditions that are not suitable for sports (Pregnancy, drunk and exhaustion).

All participants shall be liable for his / her own personal injury and property loss caused by personal health condition or other personal reasons during the event. The Organizing Committee (the “OC”) of the Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon requires all participants to have physical check- up (including electrocardiography examination) in qualified medical institutions, and make a self-evaluation to confirm if the physical condition is suitable for the event of their choice, before entering the competition.

C) Special Requirements for Participants’ Eligibility:

i)Half-Marathon participants shall have completed other half-marathon or full marathon race before or had the training record for half-marathon.

ii)All participants must be real and genuine. It is a fraud to use another people’s identity information for entry. Information and eligibility of the participants must be reviewed by the OC prior to participation.

D) Enrollment Procedure

1. The Race event is open to both individual and team registration. A team shall consist of at least 20 and not more than 100 team members. All the individual and team participants may register online on official website: www.suzhou-marathon.com and the website of WeSports www.huisports.com . All applicants must read and agree to "Participant Declaration", "Registration Notice" and "Risk Warning", the participants may fill in and submit the application form online afterwards. The enrollment procedure is complete upon successful online payment of the application fee.

2. Half Marathon, 14 KM Short Marathon participants shall register in advance. When the number of participants exceeds the set quota, the system will automatically switch to draw lots registration methods.

Pre-Registration period is from 9:00, December 19th, 2016 to 17:00, December 28th, 2016. The results of the draw lots will be published at 9:00, January 9th, 2017.

Payment Time: 9:00, January 9th, 2017 to 17:00, January 15th, 2017. The selected participants shall make payment by 17:00 January 15th, 2017. If the selected participants fail to make payment as scheduled, it will be deemed that the applicants have given up the participation automatically.

Participants who have participated in and completed 4 or more Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon (2010 to 2016 the 7th Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon) and that meet the race participation requirements are exempted from the draw lots and have direct eligibility to participate.

Participants who completed the race in 2016 the 7th Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon and finished within 1 hour and 35 minutes (for male half marathon participants) or 1hour and 50 minutes or less (for female half marathon participants) are exempted from draw lots.

3. Mini Marathon and Family Marathon: Registration Time: 9:00, December 19th, 2016 to 17:00, January 28th, 2017. Participants can log on the official website during this period to register and pay the registration fee.

4. Registration fee (in RMB per person)

Note: The Half Marathon uses disposable one time timing chip, there is no need to pay timing chip deposit; no timing chip service is provided to other events.

5.Payment Method:

Domestic Transactions: AliPay, WeChat or Online banking 

Foreign Transactions: PayPal

6. Registration Deadline:

The scale of the race event is 30,000 runners: Half Marathon limit at 12,000; 14 KM Short Marathon limit at 5,000; Mini-Marathon limit at 10,000 and Family Marathon limit at 3,000. Registration will be closed once the limit is reached.

7. The OC reserves the right to accept or reject each registration application based on the enrollment status. Once the online enrollment procedure is completed successfully, the race event and registration information shall not be changed or altered. If the participant quits the Race event after enrolled, the registration fee will not be refunded.

E) Package Pick Up Procedures

1. Pick up in person: Participants shall follow the requirements published on official website of the Race event, and arrive at the specific location to pick up number bib, timing chip (Half Marathon only), runners’ guide and other race related items within the prescribed time. Participants shall provide the duly signed pick-up form which is downloaded from official website, the valid identity card and an original copy of the valid identity card. Package pick-up by authorized substitute is allowed; such substitute shall provide both original and a copy of his/her valid identity card, the pick-up form duly signed by the participant, and a copy of the Participant’s valid identity card.

2. Team Pick up: The team leader must be aware that the participants’ package must be picked up collectively by the team leader or the designated substitute. No individual pick up is allowed.

Team leader shall follow the requirements published on official website, and arrive at the specific location to pick up number bib, timing chip (Half Marathon only), runners’ guide and other race related items within the prescribed time. Team leader shall provide the pick-up form duly signed by all team members, and both original and a copy of his/her valid identity card. The pick-up Form MUST be printed from the official website and stamped with the team’s official stamp.

Package pick-up by authorized substitute is allowed; such substitute shall provide both original and a copy of his/her valid identity card, the pick-up form duly signed by all team members, and a copy of the team leader’s valid identity card. The pick-up form MUST be stamped with the team’s official stamp.

3. For detailed information, please refer to “2017 The 8th Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon Package Pick-Up Announcement”.

F) Participants must ensure that the identity documents and documents submitted are authentic and valid.

G) Participants must fill in the personal registration information truthfully and accurately so as to ensure that the event information of the OC can be sent to the participants in a timely and accurate manner.

H) Participants shall pay their own expenses for transportation and accommodation.

7.Competition Methods

(A) The race will follow the latest track-and-field race rules published by the Chinese Athletic Association (the “CAA”) and the competition rules of current Race event. The Race event has also adopted the rating standard of mass marathon runners published by CAA.

(B) Roll-call: Roll-call will be conducted for each race event respectively.

(C) Starting Order: In the sequence of Half Marathon runners (Special guests come first), 14 KM Short Marathon runners, Mini Marathon runners and Family Marathon runners. All runners will start at the same time upon the signal of starting gun.

(D) Timing Measures: Half marathon participant will be provided with a disposable timing chip by the OC. Ground timing sensor belts are located at the respective locations, the starting point, along the track and the finishing point. Participants must wear the timing chip and must run over each grounding timing belt at all the locations to ensure respective timing sensing is induced and recorded. Anyone who fails to run over each belt will not have timing record for that point and will not be ranked. Disposable sensor timing chip will be distributed together with the number bib during Package Pick Up before the race. For details, refer to the “Runners’ Guide”.  "Runners’ Guide" is distributed together with the participant’s package during Pick Up time.

(E) Cut-Off Time: To ensure the safety of the participants and a secure and smooth running flow, the race route will be closed to public traffic at each check point during the race. After the cut-off time, the respective checkpoint will be re-open to the traffic. The runners who fail to pass through the checkpoint before the cut-off time shall quit the race and retreat from the race course to avoid possible dangers. The lag-behind runners shall be transported by buses to the Finishing Point.

 Cut-Off Time Table (According to the time of the Starting Gun):

Half Marathon's closing time is 3 hours, the specific closing time is 11:30;

14 KM Short Marathon closing time is 2 hours, the specific closing time is 10:30;

Mini Marathon closing time is 1 hour, the specific closing time is 9:30;

Family Marathon closing time is 1 hour, the specific closing time is 9:30.

Note: Under special circumstances, the OC reserves the right to shut down the race course ahead of the Cut-Off Time, all participants shall follow the arrangements made by the OC.

(F) The participants will be sampled randomly for doping test by OC.

(G) Drinking water / Beverage station, Water / Sponging station

The drinking water/ beverage stations are set up at the Starting and Finishing Points of the race course. There is one beverage station set up every 5 KM along the race course, and one Water/Sponging station set up between the two beverage stations. There are two more drinking water stations set up at 16 KM and 19 KM of the race course respectively.

(H) Bag Deposit and Withdrawal

Participants are required to store their personal belongings at the appropriate deposit location. Valuables shall not be stored in the package (such as mobile phones, identification documents, cash, keys, credit cards, laptops, iPads, etc.). In case of damage or loss of aforementioned valuables, the consequences shall be borne by the participants themselves.

On race day, the deposit service will be closed 15 minutes prior to the starting time of the race. Please plan your time appropriately.

Participants must collect their personal belongings within one and a half hours after the race event they participate in completes at the respective deposit area. If the bags are not collected within the designated time, they can collect the bags from the OC on the next day. Any bag not claimed within 5 days after the race will be disposed by OC.

(I) Please refer to the Runner's Guide for specific requirements and arrangements.

8.Awards

(A) Half Marathon Awards

The top three male and female runners will be ranked according to gunshot time, the 4th to 6th male and female runners will be ranked according to net time. The respective ranking awards (in RMB) are as follows:

Note:
i) The score of all awarded runners will be posted on official website for 10 days and the prize money will be distributed after doping tests result is released and within 60 days after announcement period ends.

ii) According to Chinese Tax Law, the prize money shall be imposed a 20% individual income tax.

iii) All participants who finish the race before cut-off time will be given a refreshment package and the finisher medal.
iv) All the half marathon participants will be provided with timing chips, T-shirt, race number bib, pins, runner bags and runners’ guide in advance.
v) All the participants can download and print out the score from official website within 90 days.

(B) 14 KM Short Marathon Awards

The top six male and female runners will be ranked according to valid timing result. The respective ranking awards (in RMB) are as follows:

Note: All the participants will be provided with the T-shirt, number bib, pins, deposit bag, runner's guide, runner bag, and certificate of participation in advance.

(C) Mini Marathon Awards

The top six male and female runners will be ranked according to valid timing result. The respective ranking awards (in RMB) are as follows: 

Note: All the participants will be provided with the T-shirt, pins, number bib, deposit bag, runner's guide, runner bag, and certificate of participation in advance.

(D) Family Marathon Awards

Family Marathon runners are ranked by families as a unit. The top six families will be awarded according to their ranking. The respective ranking awards (in RMB) are as follows:

Note: All the participants will be provided with the T-shirt, number bib, pins, deposit bag, runner's guide, runner bag, and certificate of participation in advance.

9.Penalty

The OC will set up video surveillance at the starting point, along the race course and at the finishing point. Runners violating the following rules will have their race scores canceled, have their personal information entered in the registration recognition system and be barred from taking part in Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon for the next two consecutive years, and will be reported to CAA for additional penalties. If the violation is severe, the violators may even be disqualified from the race permanently.

a.Misrepresentation on age in registration application or use impostor to substitute the participant in the race event.

b.Race with two or more timing chips (including male participant carrying timing chips of the female participant).

c.Not following the starting sequence and start at non-designated area.

d.Violate of the rules of concerning start.

e.Continue to race after cut-off time or re-enter the course after dropping out of the race.

f.Not racing along the course. Take shortcut or take public transportation.

g.Cross the finishing line repeatedly in order to get souvenirs.

h.Fail to complete the whole distance but cross the finishing line for souvenirs.

i.Cross the finishing line without wearing his/her number bib according to the requirement.

j.Forfeit the number bib, use other events’ or previous Suzhou Jinji Lake International Half Marathon’s number bib to collect the finish refreshment packs and the finisher medal.

k.Unauthorized number bib alteration, blocking entry of a certain bib number or transfer of number bib.

l.Wear timing chip not issued by OC and cross the finishing line.

m.Relay the race course to finish the race.

n.Disobey the OC and/or staff’s instruction; interfere with the race order, rioting, fighting and brawling.

o.Exhibit uncivil behavior, such as open defecation, littering and   etc.

p.Other acts in violation of the provisions of the rules.

Consequences and liabilities arising from enrollment with misrepresentation or run by imposters shall be borne by the participant concerned.

10.Medical Aid

a.The OC will install one medical aid station every 2.5 kilometers along the race course, the instruction sign is set up 100 meters ahead of each medical aid station. In case of discomfort and other emergency, the runners can go to the nearby medical aid station for treatment.

b.The ambulance services are provided along the race course to handle emergency medical situation timely.

c.The OC will arrange a volunteer every 100 meters along the race course to support medical assistance, keep the order, and provide help to the runners if necessary.

11.Insurance

The OC will insure all runners and staffs with Personal Accident Insurance. If the OC cannot purchase valid insurance for participants due to incomplete or untruthful information provided by the participants during the enrollment procedure, the participant shall take bear the full liability or consequence himself or herself. Insurance policy statement can be read at on official website of the Race event. Please read the Insurance policy Notice on the official website before the race event.

Note:

• The OC will purchase the Personal Accident Insurance for runners and the staff. However, adverse consequences caused by the participants’ self-disease or discomfort, such as sunstroke or faint will not be covered by the Personal Accidental Insurance.

• During the race, the OC will provide free first-aid, but all the expense incurred from the medical treatment in hospitals shall be borne by participant concerned.

• The participants shall be liable for their personal injury or death caused by doping or taking other illegal drugs.

• To protect the safety of the participants, the authorized referees and staffs reserve the rights to stop certain participants who cannot continue the race.

12.Contacts

Suzhou WE Sports & Culture Development Co., Ltd.

Address: 1st Floor South Chamber, Golden Lough, Jinji Lake Avenue, Suzhou industrial Park,

Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.

Tel: 0512 62600818/62600828 (Working Hours – Monday through Friday Office time: 08:30 – 17:30)

Post Code: 215123

E-mail: marathon@huisports.com

Website: www.suzhou-marathon.com, www.huisports.com

13.Further notices may be publicized later for the matters not covered herein.

14.The OC for Suzhou Jinji Lake International Marathon reserves the rights to interpret these rules and regulations.