BEIJING -- Three Chinese runners, one of whom gave the bib number to other people and the other two forged their qualification certificates for the 2019 Boston Marathon, were banned for life by the country's governing body of the sport from competing in any road running race in China.

More than 500 runners from the Chinese mainland competed in the 123rd edition of Boston Marathon on Monday. Revelations were found on the internet weeks before the race that some Chinese runners has forged their personal best result certificates in order to meet the Boston Marathon qualification standard.

The Marathon Committee under the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) started its investigation after the race and found that two runners, surnamed Wu and Zhao, have cheated in the application process as they forged result certificates of races in China. The other runner, surnamed Zhang, was found giving his bib number to other people, according to a statement released by the CAA on Thursday.

All the three runners were hit with a life ban from all road running races under the CAA. The CAA also reiterated that it will continue to crack down all kinds of cheats in marathon in order to build a healthy and clean environment of road running in China.

China has witness a phenomenon "marathon fever" in the 2010s, which is widely believed to start from the year 2011 when there were only 22 road running races held by the CAA. In 2018, a total of 1,581 road running and cross-country events were held in China.

Although the number of races has increased rapidly, many Chinese runners still consider running in the World Marathon Major series, especially in the Boston Marathon known for its high-level entry standard, would be something worthy of showing off on social media.