This article is from WeChat official account:Prism (ID: lengjing_qqfinance), Authors: Guo Feifei, Chen Fuye, Editor: Yang Puding, head picture from: Visual China
At 9 o’clock on May 22, the starting gun fired, and the Yellow River Stone Forest Mountain Marathon cross-country race in Baiyin City, Gansu officially started. According to official statistics, nearly 10,000 people participated in the competition, of which 172 runners chose to challenge the 100-kilometer distance.
If they finish the race normally without accident, they can not only enjoy the wonders of the stone forest landscape, but also get at least 1,600 yuan as a reward, which is enough to cover the 1,000 yuan entry fee.
However, 4 hours after the start, the contestants encountered severe weather such as hail, freezing rain, strong winds, sudden temperature drops, insufficient track protection, and lack of warm clothes that should have been mandatory, resulting in loss of body temperature, which eventually led to The tragedy of 21 people killed, including a number of top runners in domestic cross-country competitions.
This is also the most tragic accident in the history of domestic cross-country racing.
“Extreme weather is uncontrollable, but the management and supervision of high-risk sports cannot get out of control.” On May 24, an article on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection pointed out that as an extreme sports event with extremely high professional level, the organization of this game Whether it meets the standards, whether the necessary safety guarantees are in place, and whether the local government’s guidance and supervision in such events are lacking, etc., all face reflection and questioning.
Looking back and resuming this tragedy, all the signs have been planted before the gunshots, including the unclear rights and responsibilities of the event organizer, the lack of professional organization and emergency response capabilities of the operator, and the lack of supervision for many years. There has been a foreshadowing before.
“Three Regards” cross-country race
Time to go back to 2014.
This year, the State Council’s No. 46 document “Several Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Sports Industry and Promoting Sports Consumption” was released. Among them, the approval of commercial and mass sports events was cancelled, including the approval of the Chinese Athletics Association. Marathon event.
The scale of the event has grown accordingly. Statistics in the Blue Book of Athletics Marathon, 201Marathon-scale events reached 1828 in 9 years, compared with 134 in 2015. In terms of type, there are 481 cross-country races in 2019, exceeding the full marathon (249 races) and half marathon (467 games), orienteering (49 games) and other events.
Many cross-country race professionals told the author that cross-country races are completely different from marathons. Marathons are road races based on the city. Cross-country races are much more difficult. It means that on off-road roads, participants have to face the complex field. Track, altitude and environmental weather. “The two are two types of sports, which cannot be equated, and no one can include the other.”
From the actual operation point of view, the official classification of cross-country running in the marathon category, This also directly caused a problem, that is, there is no clear regulatory agency for cross-country, and it is in a regulatory blank state.
“Five years ago, most of the mountaineering associations were in charge, and then gradually became the track and field associations, but more of them are still in the middle of the gray supervision zone.” The founder of a sports company familiar with domestic running events told the author Said that the formal marathon may have more than 50 department stamps, but the cross-country race may only require more than a dozen chapters. There is a marathon office under the Athletics Association, which is responsible for marathon events. The Deng Association has its own mountain marathon events. Cross-country events are trivial and there is no relatively clear management method.
Until April 2021, the Track Association updated the “China Marathon Management Documents (2021) Catalogue, which will separate the cross-country organization standards Written out, the internal includes 24 detailed rules such as track design, traffic control, competition arbitration, and security and medical rescue.
However, a person in charge of an off-road event agency revealed to the author that this industry-standard document has not been promoted and operated, and many event holes are still there. Similar to the local off-road events in Baiyin City, Gansu, they are generally local governments and scenic spots. If you pay for the sponsorship, you will not find the Tianxie and Cangxie to report for certification.
“Tian Association certification requires 100,000, and China Association for certification is 300,000. You can do it without certification, it doesn’t matter.” He said.
Data from the Tianxie Blue Book shows that in 2019, a total of 1828 marathon-scale races were certifiedThere are only 357 games. Among them, a total of 318 marathons and half marathons were certified, and only 11 were certified for 481 cross-country races throughout the year.
According to the marathon management measures announced before the April 2021 update of the Athletics Association, Category C events only need to be technically certified and guided by the provincial, municipal, planned, and prefecture-level track and field associations or marathon management departments. Provincial-level Athletics Association or management departments can report to the China Athletics Association on a quarterly basis.
The first 100-kilometer cross-country race in the Yellow River Stone Forest involved in this event won the “Bronze Medal Event” of the Chinese Athletics Association in 2018. However, there is currently no public information on whether the event that happened in 2021 is also a track certified event.
According to the public information, the organizer of the event is the Baiyin Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, the organizers are the Baiyin City Sports Bureau and the Jingtai County Party Committee and the County Government, and the executive units are the Yellow River Stone Forest Scenic Area Management Committee, and the Gansu Shengjing Sports Culture Development Co., Ltd. The company, the promotion unit is Jingtai Yellow River Stone Forest Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd.
1.5 million winning small and micro operators
After the accident, the event executive, Gansu Shengjing Sports Culture Development Co., Ltd., became the focus of attention from the outside world.
According to industry and commerce information, this company was established in September 2016 with a registered capital of 5 million yuan. It is a small and micro company in the local area of silver. Since the first Yellow River Stone Forest 100km Cross-Country Race started in 2018, it has been Its executive unit.
Gansu Shengjing was able to become the winner after passing a round of bidding.
In May 2018, before the event was held, the Management Committee of the Yellow River Stone Forest Scenic Area issued a bidding announcement. The bid for the project was the “operational service” of the event, and the procurement budget was 1.63 million yuan. According to the bidding documents, in the “supplier qualification requirements” column, the business scope of bidders is required to include “sports event planning or sports project management related content”.
Gansu Shengjing, which was established less than two years ago, meets this requirement, and its business scope includes “sports event planning.” However, in addition to the requirements of the scope of business, the purchaser did not require bidders to have experience in sports event planning and management.
This may have something to do with their difficulty in hiring large and professional event operating companies. The venue of this event is Jingtai County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province, which only took off the “poor county” hat in 2019. After the bidding document was issued, only three companies bid, in addition to Gansu Shengjing, there is also Yang LingkangAustrian Cultural Investment Development Co., Ltd., Nanjing Litian Times Sports Development Co., Ltd.
The latter two companies are also “young” small and micro enterprises. Yangling Kangao was established in February 2017 with a registered capital of only 1 million yuan when participating in the bidding; Nanjing Litian Times was established in April 2016 and registered The capital is only 1 million yuan.
In fact, the bidding options for the competition itself are focused on small and micro enterprises. Below the bidding document, the “Interim Measures for Government Procurement to Promote the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises” issued by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are separately attached.
In addition, in order to ensure that the winning small and micro enterprises can successfully complete the operation of the competition, the bidding document also stated that within 5 working days after the two parties sign the contract, the purchaser shall pay the winning enterprise in full in one lump sum. Preparatory funds for the event. This helped the small and micro enterprises that won the bid to solve the problem of lack of funds. In the bidding for this competition in 2018, Gansu Shengjing finally won the bid at a price of 1.5 million.
A person familiar with the matter told the author that in the Yellow River Stone Forest Cross-Country Race that was involved in the accident, the executive unit, Gansu Shengjing, outsourced the specific operations to a company affiliated with the China Mountaineering Association. For mountain races, obstacle races, hiking races, etc., the consulting company can do this by simply dropping two or three people in the past.”
In this regard, the author has not yet contacted the Chinese Mountaineering Association’s response on this matter.
Caixin reported that many leaders of the executive team of the event were frank, they were temporarily invited to participate in the event, and they have been inquired by the police afterwards. The interviewed event organizers said that the temporary construction of the executive team may be due to insufficient running-in, which led to a decline in professionalism and buried potential accidents.
“Money-spreading” Ten Thousand People Race
“Spend money!”
A sports website directly used these 3 words when promoting the registration for the Yellow River Stone Forest Mountain Marathon in Gansu Province. This is because this event provides the athletes with generous bonuses.
The event is divided into three categories, namely 100 km cross-country race, registration fee of 1,000 yuan, quota of 400 people; 21 km cross-country race, registration fee of 198 yuan, quota of 600 people; 5 km healthy running, registration fee of 30 yuan , The quota is not limited.
According to the introduction, the organizer will provide bonuses ranging from 15,000 to 2,000 yuan for the top 10 100km cross-country races, ranging from 11To 400 players, as long as they finish the game within the stipulated closing time, they can get a subsidy of 1,600 yuan. When the contestant Gao Shuang recalled the event on his official account “Living in the South”, he also said that although the organization of the previous events was mediocre, the 1,600 yuan subsidy attracted the players.
“The Yellow River Stone Forest is really rare to be rewarded as long as the race is completed.” The person in charge of the above-mentioned cross-country event agency told the author that this may also be a gimmick to attract runners. After all, there are 20 sets for 100 kilometers. Hours of closing time, time is tight, and many contestants may not be able to complete it.
The founder of the aforementioned sports company revealed that many local unprofessional cross-country competitions are used to invite top contestants in the industry by issuing bonuses every year to trick Xiaobai into participating. The great runners have good results, which is convenient for the promotion of the event and the communication with the organizer. “This is something that everyone tacitly believes in the small event.”
It is worth noting that on May 22nd, the Mogan Mountain Cross-Country Challenge in Zhejiang Province, thousands of miles away, also started at the same time. The latter belongs to the TNF100 series of events, which is the oldest 100-kilometer trail running challenge in the Asia-Pacific region and the current standard setter of trail running events around the world. ITRA( International Trail Running Association) points event.
According to the official Yellow River Stone Forest Cross-Country Race, a total of nearly 10,000 people participated in the competition and healthy running. In the Mogan Mountain Cross-Country Race, a total of 3970 contestants signed up.
Many cross-country people judged that the Mogan Mountain race was one of the largest cross-country races in the first half of the year, and there were ITRA points after the race. Many cross-country gods such as Liang Jing chose to run in Gansu, usually by invitation. Participation includes an invitation fee of 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, as well as round-trip air tickets, etc. This is also income in addition to the bonus.
The author of the founder of an outdoor obstacle course company said that the cross-country race is even more extreme, with hundreds of kilometers in length, and the route is very long. It has high requirements for rescue capabilities and high requirements for local resource integration capabilities. The same is true. Competitions, cross-country races are not as profitable as marathons, time-consuming, laborious and not thankful.
The founder of the aforementioned sports company stated that for the operating costs of small local events, due to the needs of city attractions, the general government and scenic spots subsidize most of them, which is one or two million, with a total income of two or three million, deducting operating costs. The operator can earn 700,000 to 800,000 yuan; the large-scale well-known cross-country events mostly rely on brand sponsorship fees, plus player registration fees and government subsidies, which can earn 6 to 7 million yuan.
The firstWhen the Yellow River Stone Forest Cross-Country Race was held, Gansu Shengjing won the bid with a price of 1.5 million yuan. Perhaps it was because the organizer felt that the price was a bit high. When the second edition was held, the organizer proposed a purchase price of 1 million yuan. In the end, because the quotations of the three bidders all exceeded the purchase price, the bid was invalidated.
It is worth noting that the winning bid is not cheap. In July 2018, the provincial capital Lanzhou City also issued a bidding announcement for a third-party service project for a 100-kilometer urban mountain cross-country race. The purchase price of the bidding was only 300,000 yuan, and it was finally sold at 292,000 yuan.
“secret” event emergency plan
For Gansu Shengjing, in addition to obtaining purchase money from the organizer, the commercial development of the event is also a major aspect of their profitability.
Public information shows that since the first event, Gansu Shengjing has been actively attracting investment and announced the corresponding price. For example, the title fee for is 2.8 million yuan, the top partner is 800,000 yuan, the starting point is 50,000 yuan, and the exhibition board logo fee is 200 yuan.
However, since this event is still in its infancy and its reputation is relatively small, not many are willing to become its title sponsor or top partner. The title sponsor of the first event was Gansu Wanmei Industrial Group, but in fact the group has always been an affiliate of Gansu Shengjing. Zhang Xiaoyan, who holds 50% of the equity in Gansu Shengjing, is the legal person of Gansu Wanmei Industrial.
In addition, according to the pictures of the early events, the sponsors for the event are mainly local banks, purified water, chemical plants, etc.
So, what is Gansu Shengjing responsible for in this event? In the bidding document for the first Yellow River Stone Forest 100-kilometer Cross-Country Race, the purchaser had clearly put forward 10 requirements for the bidder.
Such as the survey of the race route to realize the broadcast of CCTV, China Sports Daily, Xinhuanet, People’s Daily Online, Tencent.com and other media, and be responsible for convening a certain number of professional athletes at home and abroad to participate in the competition. Registration work, responsible for statistics of medals and certificates, is responsible for the distribution of bonuses for athletes and referees, recruitment and publicity in the metropolitan area and other areas, etc.
The emergency work that has received much attention is not on the 10 needs. The bidding document only mentioned in the “comprehensive score” column that the bidder should provide an emergency plan.
But this does not mean that the executor of this emergency planIt is Shengjing, Gansu. So, what is the emergency plan? Who will implement this plan? It is not yet known.
However, before the start of the second Yellow River Stone Forest 100km Cross-Country Race in 2019, the official website of Jingtai County Government announced the emergency plan for the event. According to the emergency plan, Jingtai County established an emergency rescue leading group, with the county committee standing committee as the group leader, the director of the Health Bureau and the director of the Public Security Bureau as the deputy group leaders, and the staff of Gansu Shengjing is one of the 11 group members.
The leading group is mainly responsible for the centralized command of the emergency support work for emergencies, the organization of relevant departments, and the deployment of rescue personnel. In the assignment of specific work responsibilities, the Jingtai County Health Bureau shall be responsible for the designation of medical diagnosis and treatment, emergency rescue plans and related plans, and the establishment of medical points. At the same time, it is also responsible for the emergency vehicles to follow the contestants during the run.
It is worth noting that the staff of Jingtai County Meteorological Bureau are not in the emergency leading group, and the bureau does not have a division of labor in the emergency plan. In addition, the author did not find an emergency plan for the fourth event in 2021.
Missing Supply Station
At present, officials have classified the accident at the Yellow River Stone Forest Cross-Country Race in Gansu as “a public safety incident that occurred due to sudden changes in weather in a local area.” The detailed investigation results have not yet been released. However, according to the publicly available information, the event executive Gansu Shengjing has made mistakes in many aspects such as the setup of supply depots, mandatory equipment requirements, suspension of the game, and emergency rescue plans.
“The biggest problem with this accident is that the most difficult stage from CP2 to CP3 totals 8 kilometers, without a supply station.” A runner who participated in cross-country competitions for many times analyzed the author. It is said that the terrain and other factors cause the lack of supply stations, which is not common in mature competitions. The highest point of a stage must be over the top of the mountain. Foreign competitions will ask mountain rescuers to cooperate in setting up rescue tents to store medicines and food supplies, commonly known as “observation posts. “In fact, riding a motorcycle and setting up a simple tent can solve a big problem.”
Compared with the mandatory requirement of setting up replenishment stations every 2.5 kilometers for marathon events, many domestic cross-country events lack the professional standardization system guidance of regulatory agencies, and it is difficult to implement the safety guarantee rules similar to those of mature foreign events.
The rules for the organization of cross-country competitions just updated in April 2021 by the Tianxie Association stated that one replenishment station shall be set up every 10 kilometers, and the maximum distance between the two replenishment stations should not exceed 20 kilometers. Weather conditions and the number of participants have shortened the intervals between the replenishment stations.
In addition, the Gansu cross-country race that was involved in this accident was criticized by the outside world. It is also mandatory for participants to bring equipment on the list. There are only conventional bibs, timing chips, electronic tracks, GPS trackers, lighting headlights, and water. Equipment, life-saving blankets, whistles, mobile phones, windbreakers or jackets for life-saving at critical moments, and only sun hats, first aid kits and other items are listed as “recommended equipment.”
The author inquires about the rules of domestic mature competitions such as Hong Kong HK 100, Himalayas, Chaigu Tangsi Kuocang, Moganshan, etc. The mandatory equipment list includes jackets, waterproof jackets and other clothing, and will be randomly checked during the competition, if found If the equipment is missing, increase the penalty points or disqualify the game.
“The UTMB event is a’semi-self-sufficient’ event. It requires players to have the ability to support 2 hours alone without any help, regardless of the weather conditions, safety and performance , This is the most important role of equipment.” Catherine, the founder of UTMB, said in an interview in 2016. UTMB is the world’s most prestigious European Tour of Mont Blanc cross-country challenge.
Refer to ITRA(International Trail Running Association) certification standards. Each cross-country race has a corresponding entry threshold according to the difficulty of the competition. This threshold It is determined by the number of ITRA points. Participants will get different points for completing the competition. For example, Liang Jing, the god of cross-country who just passed away, scored 913 points, ranking first among Chinese runners.
The founders of the aforementioned sports companies believe that in addition to accountability, we should also establish a cross-country competition mechanism with clear rewards and penalties, set standards for events, participants, volunteers, rescue and other systems, and establish event access Withdraw from the mechanism, but you can’t go back to the old way of reviewing and approving games across the board.
CCTV reported that after the accident at the Yellow River Stone Forest cross-country race in Gansu, on the evening of May 23, the State Sports General Administration urgently convened a meeting to strengthen the safety management of the event. Director Gou Zhongwen pointed out that the original management model led by the administrative management system is difficult to adapt to the requirements of supervision tasks under the new situation. There are some problems and shortcomings in the work. It is necessary to do a good job in the safety management of major events and formulate it in a targeted manner. Safety work plan and emergency plan, establish a “fuse mechanism”.
As of press time, marathons, mountain marathons, and cross-country events in Guangzhou, Kunming, Inner Mongolia, Kanas and many other places have been postponed or cancelled.
This article is from the WeChat public account:Prism (ID: lengjing_qqfinance), Authors: Guo Feifei, Chen Fu Also, edit: Yang Puding