\u00a0<\/p>\n
SK-pop star Choi Minho from boy band Shinee apologised on Nov 3 after footage from his first full marathon sparked debate over whether he had received prohibited physical assistance during the race.<\/p>\n
Minho completed the 2026 JTBC Seoul Marathon on Nov 1, finishing in 3h 18sec. He announced his finish on social media later that day.<\/p>\n
\u201cMissed sub-3 by 18 seconds. Still, it was such a valuable experience. Life is a marathon,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Sub-3 refers to finishing a full marathon under three hours, a widely recognised goal among amateur runners.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the race, videos of Minho spread online, appearing to show a man believed to be his pacemaker running behind him and placing a hand near his waist and back.<\/p>\n
Some viewers called for Minho\u2019s result to be disqualified, while others argued the footage was insufficient to establish a rule violation.<\/p>\n
World Athletics rules prohibit physical support from another athlete that helps a runner move forward, except when the assistance helps the runner recover to a standing position.<\/p>\n
The key question remains whether the contact actually aided Minho\u2019s progress and if it violated the event\u2019s official regulations.<\/p>\n
JTBC Seoul Marathon has not released a statement on the issue.<\/p>\n
On Nov 3, Minho broke his silence with a social media post announcing that, out of respect for all runners, he would not officially accept his race results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI apologise for the disappointment I have caused,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything happened because of my shortcomings, and as someone who cherishes and loves sports, I feel deeply ashamed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minho said that he would \u201cbe more careful to ensure that the same thing does not happen again and would do (his) best to always show (his) best self\u201d.<\/p>\n
Before the JTBC Seoul Marathon, Minho placed third in the men\u2019s amateur 35-39 age group at the 2026 World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong on Oct 24. – The Korea Herald\/ANN<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 SK-pop star Choi Minho from boy band Shinee apologised on Nov 3 after footage from his first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,9338],"class_list":["post-674556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-na"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}