A Scottish ultra-marathon runner has been banned for 12 months by UK Athletics for utilizing a automobile throughout a 50-mile race – after which accepting third place.
Joasia Zakrzewski was caught utilizing the automobile throughout this 12 months’s GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool run after monitoring knowledge confirmed she was not operating for two.5 miles of the occasion.
The 47-year-old, who represented Scotland within the 2014 Commonwealth Games, was later stripped of her third place end.
Zakrzewski claimed she instructed race officers about having been in a automobile for a portion of the run in April and ending the race “in a non-competitive way”.
But in its verdict, the Independent Disciplinary Panel of UK Athletics mentioned: “The claimant had collected the trophy on the finish of the race, one thing which she ought to haven’t accomplished if she was finishing the race on a non-competitive foundation.
“She also did not seek to return the trophy in the week following the race.”
Zakrzewski, who works as a GP in Dumfries, had received a 48-hour race in Taipei, Taiwan, weeks earlier than the UK run.
She additionally claimed victory in a 24-hour race in Australia in 2020 after operating greater than 236km (146 miles), and had beforehand set nationwide information for 200km and 100-mile races.
A buddy of the runner instructed the BBC that Zakrzewski was unwell and arrived within the UK from Australia simply hours earlier than the April race.
Adrian Stott mentioned: “The race didn’t go to plan. She said she was feeling sick and tired in the race and wanted to drop out.
“She has cooperated absolutely with the race organisers’ investigations, giving them a full account of what occurred.”
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After Zakrzewski was stripped of the end result, an incensed Mel Sykes was handed third place.
She wrote on social media afterwards: “The sad thing in all this is that it completely takes the p*** out of the race organisers, fellow competitors and fair sport.
“How can somebody who is aware of they’ve cheated cross a end line, acquire a medal/trophy and have their photographs taken?!
“The audacity of uploading the data, complete with trophy photo, makes this worse!!”
Source: information.sky.com”