50-year-old Chinese man completes 42 km marathon while puffing cigarettes

Running a 42 km marathon is not a small feat. Now imagine doing it while chain-smoking. It may sound almost impossible to many but a 50-year-old man in Guangzhou achieved it without much difficulty. The man, who goes by the name “Uncle Chen” finished the endurance marathon in Chinaunder four hours and videos showed that he kept smoking cigarettes during the entire stretch of the race.

The videos showing Chen taking part in the race with a cigarette in his mouth found a lot of popularity on social media platforms Weibo and WeChat. According to a report on guancha.cn, he was the 574th person to complete the race among 1500 participants and his official time was 3 hours and 28 minutes.

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The Canadian Running Magazine reported that Chen has a history of taking part in marathons while smoking and in the past, he has even finished a 50 km race. The report added that his unique style has earned him the name of “Smoking Brother” in China after his debut run in the 2018 Guangzhou Marathon.

He ended up with a better performance at the Xiamen Marathon in 2019 and according to media reports, he has improved his timing every year. However, his smoking has sparked a huge conversation among doctors who view it as an advertisement.

The South China Morning Post reported that various doctors have criticised him for smoking during the races and have also made it clear that the physical exercise from running does not negate the harmful impacts of smoking.