Photo/Illutration Many runners wear masks at the Kumamoto Castle Marathon in Kumamoto on Feb. 16 amid the spread of the new coronavirus. (Jun Kaneko)

All but a few of 400 or so Chinese runners who had planned to compete in three marathons held Feb. 16 bowed out after organizers asked them to do so due to fears about the surging new coronavirus.

Marathons were staged in Kumamoto, Kita-Kyushu and Kyoto. In many cases, Chinese runners who deferred their participation were guaranteed berths at the events to be held next year.

Many of the runners in the Kumamoto Castle Marathon, held in Kumamoto city, wore face masks. The event organizer handed out about 20,000 masks to competitors and volunteers as a precautionary measure.

Of the 35 entries from China, 25 had notified the organizers by Feb. 10 they would not take part in the event. Officials contacted the other 10 by email and asked them to refrain from running, and three agreed to bow out.

A Japanese national who lives in China also took part.

Seven Chinese had initially planned to compete in the Kita-Kyushu marathon, and six dropped out after being asked to do so by city authorities and event organizers. In exchange, they were promised slots in next year’s marathon.

One Chinese national joined the race, saying she had been living in the city since last September and posed no health risk to others.

In the Kyoto city marathon held in the ancient capital the same day, 386 residents of China had planned to compete. More than 90 percent of them agreed to drop out after being guaranteed spots free of charge in next year's event.

However, 28 went ahead and joined the race.

Yoshiaki Katsuda, a professor of travel medicine at Kansai University of Social Welfare, urged organizers to exercise caution before making similar requests to participants in future events.

“Event organizers need to be flexible by taking into account information provided by the World Health Organization rather than blindly following what others do,” Katsuda said.

(This article was written by Nanami Watanabe, Eiji Iseki, Koshiro Omori, Rikako Takai and Satoko Onuki.)