A top marathon runner was disqualified for using a car during a race.
Joasia Zakrzewski, from Dumfries, Scotland, is a top ultra-marathon runner.
She’s known for racing for Great Britain in the IAU World 100km Championships, winning individual silver in 2011 and bronze in 2014 and 2015, and representing Team Scotland in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games marathon.
Yet in April of 2023, she made headlines worldwide when she competed in the GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool 50-mile race and traveled around 2.5 miles by car.
Before it was uncovered that she had used a vehicle, Zakrzewski accepted a medal and trophy for finishing third.
The now 48-year-old told BBC Scotland that her actions were not ‘malicious.’
Zakrzewski alleges she became lost on the course around the halfway mark when her leg began to feel sore.
She said a friend saw her on the side of the course and she accepted a lift to the next checkpoint – with the pain so bad in her leg she planned to tell marshals she was pulling out.
Zakrzewski claims marshals told her: “‘You will hate yourself if you stop.”
The sportswoman said she ‘agreed to carry on in a non-competitive way’ and ‘didn’t overtake the runner in front.’
After Zakrzewski crossed the finish line, she was awarded a medal and a third-place wooden trophy, which she acknowledged was ‘a massive error accepting.’
She added that she was ‘unwell’ and ‘not thinking clearly.’
GB Ultras director of the race, Wayne Drinkwater, said he later received information notifying him a runner had gained an ‘unsporting, competitive advantage during a section of the event.’
He told BBC Scotland: “After the event, there was no attempt by Joasia to make us aware of what had happened and to give us an opportunity to correct the results or return the third place trophy during the course of the subsequent seven days.
“At the finish location, Joasia crossed the finish line timing mat, received her finisher medal, and was presented with her trophy. At no point at the finish were the event team informed by Joasia that she was ‘not running the race competitively.’”
He added that ‘none of our event team’ had been made aware of Zakrzewski using vehicle transport.
Mel Sykes has now been awarded third place in the race.
According to a written decision by the Independent Disciplinary Panel of U.K. Athletics, Zakrzewski admitted to competing with an unfair edge.
She reportedly said in a letter: “As stated, I accept my actions on the day that I did travel in a car and then later completed the run, crossing the finish line and inappropriately receiving a medal and trophy, which I did not return immediately as I should have done.”
In late 2023, it was reported that Zakrzewski was banned for 12 months from competitive events, as well as being prohibited from representing Great Britain in domestic and overseas events for the same period.