A British ultra-marathon star has been handed a ban after she used a car to complete part of a 50-mile race she came third in.
Joasia Zakrzewski, 47, admitted using her friend’s vehicle for 2.5 miles of the GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool event in April, after GPS data revealed what happened.
Now, a UK Athletics disciplinary panel has found her guilty of breaching their code of conduct for senior athletes and suspended her from competing for 12 months.
The GP, from Dumfries in Scotland, said accepted the lift after she suffered an injury to her leg about halfway through the route.
At the time, she said she was using the car to get 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',” Dr Zakrzewski previously told the BBC.
“I agreed to carry on in a non-competitive way.”
But when Dr Zakrzewski got to the finish line, she accepted a medal and a third-place wooden trophy – something she later agreed was “a massive error”.
She denied intentionally cheating but the UK Athletics panel rejected this, saying her account was “contrary to the evidence of the marshals - evidence which the respondent did not seek to challenge or contest, by way of cross-examination at the hearing”.
They went on: “Further, the claimant had collected the trophy at the end of the race, something which she should have not done if she was completing the race on a non-competitive basis.
“She also did not seek to return the trophy in the week following the race. Even if she was suffering from brain fog on the day of the race, she had a week following the race to realise her actions and return the trophy, which she did not do.
“Finally, she posted about the race on social media, and this did not disclose that she had completed the race on a non-competitive basis.”
Dr Zakrzewski is a leading ultra-marathon runner, having won the Taipei Ultramarathon in Taiwan in February outright - setting a world record across 255 miles.
She has previously represented Team Scotland in the marathon at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
