An ultramarathoner was disqualified after covering part of a course in a friend's car.
In the latest incident, a top-ranked ultramarathoner had her third-place finish in a race in England earlier this month invalidated because she got a ride in a car for two and a half miles of the 50-mile course.
Tracking data showed the runner, Joasia Zakrzewski, had completed one mile of the Manchester to Liverpool race on April 7 in 1 minute 40 seconds, a split much more likely to be posted by a late-model sedan than by a 47-year-old human being on two legs.
Zakrzewski of Britain was disqualified from the race, and the matter was referred to governing bodies for possible further action. She said she had actually quit the race and accepted a ride to tell organizers at the next check-in spot of that decision, but was encouraged to try to finish the race. She called her acceptance of the third-place award “a miscommunication.” Not everyone, though, was ready to forgive.
The true third-place finisher, Mel Sykes, tweeted of her promotion: “Great news for me but really bad news for sportsmanship.”
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Zakrzewski said her leg was hurting and when she spotted a friend at the side of the course, she decided her race was over. She accepted a ride in his car to the next checkpoint, she said, with the intention of officially dropping out of the race. But a race marshal there convinced her to carry on, if only for pride, and she did so in what she called “a noncompetitive way.”
When she saw a runner ahead of her, for example, she said she intentionally did not pass her, knowing she was now running the race unofficially.
But when she crossed the finish line in third place, she was handed a trophy and a medal. “I made a massive error accepting the trophy and should have handed it back,” Zakrzewski told the BBC.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/sports/joasia-zakrzewski-ultramarathon-cheating.html
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