Ultramarathon runner disqualified after using a car during race

Scottish ultramarathon runner Joasia Zakrzewski placed third after running a 50-mile race in England this month in less than 7½ hours.

Well, she apparently didn’t run the entire distance.

Zakrzewski was disqualified following allegations that she used a car to cover 2.5 miles of the GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool 50-mile race on April 7. She faces disciplinary action from UK Athletics after accepting an award for her third-place finish, then blaming jet lag and “miscommunication” for her actions.

“The issue has been investigated and, having reviewed the data from our race tracking system, GPX data, statements provided from our event team, other competitors and from the participant herself, we can confirm that a runner has now been disqualified from the event having taken vehicle transport during part of the route,” race director Wayne Drinkwater told the BBC on Wednesday.

Drinkwater said the organization received information that a runner had gained an “unsporting, competitive advantage during a section of the event.” Mapping data showed Zakrzewski covering a mile of the race in just 1 minute, 40 seconds. Organizers learned she had traveled by car for 2.5 miles before continuing to complete the race on foot.

Fourth-place finisher Mel Sykes was elevated to third after Zakrzewski’s disqualification.

Zakrzewski is an accomplished distance runner, having set national records and earned silver and bronze medals in international championship events. In February, she set a 48-hour world record across 255 miles in Taiwan – without automotive aid – though that record was broken in March.

During the 50-mile race in northwest England earlier this month, however, Zakrzewski struggled.

Zakrzewski later told the BBC that she became lost, her leg began to feel sore and she started to limp about halfway through the course. She said she spotted a friend on the side of the course and the pain pushed her to accept a ride to the next checkpoint to tell marshals she was pulling out of the race.

“When I got to the checkpoint I told them I was pulling out and that I had been in the car, and they said, ‘You will hate yourself if you stop,’” she said. “I agreed to carry on in a noncompetitive way.”

Zakrzewski received a medal and a third-place trophy, and she posed for pictures after she crossed the finish line. The 47-year-old, who lives in Australia, said she did so because she was “tired and jet-lagged and felt sick.”

“I hold my hands up, I should have handed them back and not had pictures done but I was feeling unwell and spaced out and not thinking clearly,” she said.

Zakrzewski said her actions weren’t “malicious, it was miscommunication.” She also apologized to Sykes.

Drinkwater, the race director, disputed Zakrzewski’s account, saying none of the event staff in question “were aware that Joasia had vehicle transport at any time during the race until we received information after the race from another competitor.

“If we had been made aware during the race, disqualification from the race would have been immediate at that point.”

Cheating in marathons isn’t a new phenomenon, and Zakrzewski joins a list of runners who have used vehicles to cut the pack.

Rosie Ruiz was stripped of the 1980 Boston Marathon title after she was found to have cheated in that race – just months after she allegedly took a 16-mile subway ride during the New York City Marathon. Emily Clark admitted to cheating in six events, including a 2019 half marathon in Portland in which she apparently rode her bike en route to a second-place finish.