Ultramarathon athlete stripped of medal for traveling by car
Zakrzewski, now living in Sydney, Australia, admitted he made a "big mistake" when he received his medal and reward for third place in the 60km race from Manchester to Liverpool on April 7. Runner, 47, also emphasized that her actions were "not malicious" and that the incident stemmed from "misunderstanding".
On BBC Scotland, Zakrzewski said she got lost about halfway through GB Ultras 2023 and started feeling pain in her leg. At that time, she thought she could not continue competing and decided to hitchhike a friend's car to the next checkpoint. Here, she informed the organizers of her decision to quit.
"When I got there, I announced I was traveling by car and wanted to stop competing," Zakrzewski said. "And the organizers told me, 'You'll hate yourself if you stop.' So I agreed to continue in a non-competitive way. I made sure I didn't pass the runner ahead when I saw her. because I don't want to interfere with her race."
Zakrzewski felt tired, confused due to the time zone change and was sick when he had just flown from Australia to England the night before. She also admitted that receiving medals, titles and posing for photos after finishing third was "an act of stupidity".
"I raised my hand to take a picture, but I should have returned the medal and title and didn't take a picture. But I was not feeling well, my mind was hazy and I was not thinking clearly," Zakrzewski explained.
Zakrzewski further revealed that she paid her medals and titles and apologized to podiatrist Mel Sykes - the running leg was promoted to third place. However, Sykes was still not satisfied and continued to lash out at the opponent. "Great news for me, but really bad news for sportsmanship," she wrote on Twitter. "This happened because a competitor cheated. After an investigation, she was disqualified."
Sykes praised the organizers of GB Ultras 2023 for a good job in quickly completing the investigation of the incident. "The sad thing is that she looks down on the organizers, the competitors and the fairness of the sport. How can someone who knows he's cheating can cross the finish line, get medals, trophies and take pictures? he's having fun?", she continued to criticize Zakrzewski.
Similarly, many angry athletes complained to the organizers and asked to ban Zakrzewski from competing after this cheating.
Zakrzewski was caught cheating when the tracking device showed her running at a speed of nearly 60km / h, much faster than Usain Bolt - the Jamaican legend who reached the highest speed of 44.72 km / h when setting up. 100m run record with a time of 9.58 seconds in 2009.
The tracking device also showed Zakrzewski following the main road, not the running track during part of the event. Traveling by car for a distance of nearly 4km helps the Scottish runner to take advantage of about 25 minutes. In the end, she finished with a record of 7 hours 25 minutes, only 22 seconds behind the runner-up in the women's category.
Before GB Ultras 2023, Zakrzewski broke the world record for a female athlete's distance running in 48 hours with 410,843km at the Taipei Ultramarathon (China) on February 12. She held this record until March 26, before being overtaken by runner Camille Herron with 435,336 km.
In July 2020, Zakrzewski broke Scotland's national record when he finished second in the 24-hour event in Canberra. That performance puts the female GP to fifth on the UK's all-time 24-hour run list. Zakrzewski also broke three other significant time or distance records when setting this feat. She also represented Scotland in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
A similar incident happened at the 2011 Kielder Marathon in Northumberland, when Rob Sloan was stripped of third place for admitting to riding a half-way bus. He said he felt tired at the 32km mark and got on the bus for spectators. Sloan later withdrew his confession but was banned from participating in the tournaments.
