A runner in eastern China completed a marathon in less than three and a half hours while chain-smoking his way through the competition.

Footage filmed in the city of Xiamen in Fujian Province from January 2019 shows a man named Chen Bangxian in his 50s puffing on a cigarette while completing the Xiamen Marathon.

Chen has also been pictured running with a cigarette in his mouth during the 2019 Xiamen Marathon and the 2022 Xin'anjiang Marathon.

A picture of Chen's race certificate showed that he finished the race in just 3 hours and 28 minutes and he placed 574th out of more than 1,500 competitors.

Chen chain-smoked in several marathon competitions, including Xiamen Marathon, Lishui Ultra-Marathon, Lhasa Half-Marathon and the latest Xin'anjiang Marathon.

However, some netizens were not happy about Chen's behaviour during the marathon.

One person commented on a Chinese social media Weibo: "All runners around him were forced to get second-hand smoke. Should we not ban the behaviour?"

While another netizen said: "It (the behaviour) should be severely punished, rather than being encouraged."

The video was provided by local media with permission.

11月6日，浙江建德，2022年建德新安江马拉松赛场上，一位大爷“火”了，嘴里叼着一根香烟在人群了个性奔跑！并最终以3小时28分45秒的成绩完赛，在3000名参赛者中名列574名。
据了解，大爷叫陈邦仙，50多岁了，比赛时喜欢嘴里叼着个烟卷，感到疲劳时就来上一口“解乏”。他曾多次出现在各大马拉松赛场上。2017年杭州马拉松的赛道上“抽烟哥”陈大爷初次被人们所熟知。之后，他又数次参赛，厦门马拉松、丽水超级马拉松，甚至在拉萨半马时，他在高原也来支烟。视频中的片段，是他在2019年1月6日，参加厦门马拉松抽烟的画面。