Joasia Zakrzewski apologises for using car during race

A top runner who was disqualified from an ultra-marathon after reportedly traveling by car for some of the high-profile race hours after arriving from Australia has broken her silence.

Australian-based Scottish athlete Joasia Zakrzewski, 47, has been stripped of the medal and trophy she received for finishing third in the 2023 GB Ultras 50-mile (80km) race from Manchester to Liverpool on April 7, but was later charged of traveling two and a half miles of route by car.

The former Commonwealth Games athlete has opened up about the scandal to explain why she accepted the lift in a friend’s car after feeling ‘sick’ after flying in from Australia the night before.

Now living on the NSW Central Coast north of Sydney, where she also works as a GP, Zakrzewski admits she made a ‘massive mistake’ in accepting her third place trophy, adding that her actions were ‘not malicious’ and that the incident was caused by miscommunication.

The cheating scandal comes less than three years after Zakrzewski made international headlines when she broke four records in Australia.

She said BBC Scotland how she got lost half way through the course of the GB Ultras when she started to feel pain in her leg and thought she couldn’t go any further.

She says she accepted a ride in a friend’s car to the next checkpoint where she told the marshals she would drop out.

“When I got to the checkpoint I told them I was driving away and I was in the car, and they said, ‘You’ll hate yourself if you stop,'” she told BBC Scotland on Wednesday.

“I agreed to continue in a non-competitive manner.

“I made sure not to overtake the runner in front of me when I saw her because I didn’t want to disrupt her race.”

She admits she was an “idiot” for accepting a medal and wooden trophy she received when she crossed the finish line before posing for photos.

“I was tired and jet-lagged and felt nauseous,” Zakrzewski said.

“I held up my hands, I should have given them back and not had any pictures taken, but I wasn’t feeling well and dizzy and wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Zakrzewski added that she has apologized to fellow runner Mel Sykes, who has since been awarded third place.

The runner was allegedly caught after tracking information revealed she reached a ‘superhuman’ top speed of 35 mph – much faster than Usain Bolt at his best.

Just a few weeks earlier, Zakrzewski shattered the world record for the most kilometers walked by a woman in 48 hours.

Now rivals have called for the runner – who represented Scotland in the marathon at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow – to be banned from racing.

Nearly 400 runners braved a 6am start to pound the roads from Manchester to Liverpool on Good Friday for the annual 50 mile Ultra Marathon.

Stopping for high-calorie snacks and drinks along the way to give them much-needed energy, the dedicated amateurs spent up to 13 hours relentlessly chalking up the miles.

Dr. Zakrzewski crossed the finish line just 22 seconds behind the runner-up in the women’s category in a time of seven hours and 25 minutes and was proudly photographed posing with her bronze medal.

However, the Daily Mail has learned that rumors soon began to swirl around her achievement.

Examination of the tracking data showed she had covered about two and a half miles of the route by car — possibly gaining as much as 25 minutes.

In addition, it showed that she followed the main road rather than the race route for part of the event. She was reported to have completed one mile of the race in just one minute and 40 seconds, and was unceremoniously disqualified.

The third-placed woman’s medal was instead awarded to NHS podiatrist Mel Sykes, who on Twitter labeled her embarrassed rival a ‘cheat’.

“Great news for me, but really bad news for sportsmanship,” she wrote.

Answering questions about how her rival was caught, Ms Sykes added: “Too many people noticed something was wrong and contacted the race organizers separately, so they had to launch an investigation.”

Race data uploaded to the sports app Strava by Dr Zakrzewski and shared by Ms Sykes on Twitter revealed that she “didn’t take the course of the race,” Ms Sykes claimed. She also claimed there was a section where Dr. Zakrzewski’s performance numbers “didn’t add up.”

Ms Sykes complained that the runner’s actions “take the p**s completely out of race organisers, fellow competitors and fair sport”.

“How can someone who knows they cheated cross the finish line, collect a medal/trophy and have their picture taken?!” she added.

After starting out as a racing doctor, Dr. Zakrzewski took up extreme running himself and set a series of records.

Her performance culminated in running a record 255 miles at Taiwan’s Taipei Ultramarathon in February – though the result only stood for a month before being overturned by an American rival.

A friend blamed her actions on her arrival the night before the race after traveling 48 hours from Australia, where she is now stationed.

“The race didn’t go according to plan,” Adrian Stott told the BBC. “She said she felt sick and tired during the race and wanted to quit.

“She is genuinely sorry for the upset caused.”

But the statement has cut little ice within the ultra-running community.

“We can all relate to having to quit a race, but what you don’t do is restart and cross the finish line as if you didn’t do anything wrong,” a leading participant told the Mail.

GB Ultras race director Wayne Drinkwater said the organizers have received ‘information that a runner had gained an unsportsmanlike competitive advantage during any part of the event that would have compromised the status and integrity of the results’.

He added: “The issue has been investigated and after reviewing our race tracking system data, GPX data, statements from our event team, other competitors and from the competitor himself, we can confirm that a runner has now been disqualified. the event has taken vehicle transport during part of the route.’

The saga recalls the infamous case of a marathon runner who was robbed of third place after admitting to taking a bus halfway.

Rob Sloan later claimed he had tired out at the 20 miles of the 2011 Kielder Marathon in Northumberland, and got on the free spectator bus.

He later retracted his confession, but was banned from running any more races.

Last night fellow participants of the Manchester to Liverpool race expressed surprise and called for Dr. Zakrzewski.

Keith Johnstone, who finished 46th in the updated rankings, said: ‘If someone fails to complete the course they should be named, shamed and disqualified.’

He said it was “great news that justice has been done,” adding that he would “rather die on my feet than cheat.”

Colin Rushton, who came 59th, said, “Such a crazy thing to do in a race with no prize money or qualifying for anything.

“However, I need another 50 to get disqualified before I end up on the podium.”

Entering its seventh year, the event starts at Salford Quays and follows the Trans-Pennine Trail, the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey, finishing at the Railway Club in Aintree.

Scottish Athletics said it was ‘aware of the problem’.