Photos of chain-smoking marathon runner Uncle Chen go viral after running Xin’anjiang marathon and smoking cigarettes

A 50-year-old man from China has gone viral after completing a marathon in an impressive time while chain smoking.

The runner, known as ‘Uncle Chen’, was pictured running the Xin’anjiang marathon in Jiande, China last week, lighting cigarettes and running with a smoke in his mouth.

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He finished the 42-kilometre race in a time of three hours and 28 minutes to place 574th in a field of nearly 1500 runners.

The photos went viral on Weibo, which is a well-known Chinese social media app.

But Weibo users were angered by Uncle Chen’s actions and felt they were inappropriate during an athletics event.

“This type of behaviour should be banned from the race,” one Weibo user said.

While another remarked: “I feel bad for the runners around him.”

Uncle Chen was reportedly first pictured smoking in a marathon in Guangzhou in 2018. It has also been reported that he only smokes cigarettes when running, and he competes in ultramarathons as well.

While there have been calls for him to stop smoking while competing, there is no actual rule that forbids such behaviour during a marathon.

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge holds the unofficial record for a marathon, when he ran the 42.195km distance in 1:59:40:2 in 2019. He also holds the official marathon record time of 2:01:09, set in September this year at the Berlin Marathon.

There is no record for smoking cigarettes while running a marathon in the Guinness World Records book.