British ultra-marathon runner disqualified from race for 'using a CAR'

Leading British ultra-marathon runner, 47, is disqualified from race for ‘using a CAR and reaching super-human top speed of 35mph’

• Fellow competitors are calling for Dr Joasia Zakrzewski to be banned from racing

A top runner has been disqualified from an ultra-marathon after she allegedly rode in a car for a portion of a high-profile 50-mile race.

Joasia Zakrzewski, 47, finished third in the 2023 GB Ultras earlier this month but has since been accused travelling two-and-a-half miles of the route by car.

Friends claim she accepted the lift as she was feeling ‘sick’ having flown in from Australia the night before, saying she is ‘genuinely sorry’. 

The runner, who works as a GP, is understood to have been caught after tracking information showed she attained a ‘super-human’ top speed of 35mph – far faster than Usain Bolt in his pomp. 

Just weeks earlier Dr Zakrzewski smashed the world record for the most miles run 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.

Joasia Zakrzewski, 47, (left) has been disqualified from the 2023 GB Ultras after she allegedly used a car to give her aching legs a break during the high-profile 50-mile race

Joasia Zakrzewski finished third in the race but has since been accused travelling two-and-a-half miles of the route by car. The runner (pictured during the 2023 GB Ultras) is understood to have been caught after tracking data showed she attained a ‘super-human’ speed of 35mph

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

Stopping en route for calorie-laden snacks and drinks to give them much-needed energy, the committed amateurs spent as many as 13 hours relentlessly chalking off the miles.

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

However the Daily Mail has learnt that rumours quickly began swirling around her achievement.

Examination of tracking data showed she had covered around two-and-a-half miles of the route by car – potentially gaining herself as much as 25 minutes.

In addition, it showed she followed the main road rather than the race route for part of the event.

She is understood to have covered a mile of the race in just one minute 40 seconds, and was unceremoniously disqualified.

The medal for the third-placed woman was instead awarded to NHS podiatrist Mel Sykes, who took to Twitter to slam her shamed rival as a ‘cheat’.

‘Great news for me – but really bad news for sportsmanship,’ she wrote.

Ms Sykes complained the runner’s actions ‘completely takes the p**s out of the race organisers, fellow competitors and fair sport’.

‘How can someone who knows they have cheated cross a finish line, collect a medal/trophy and have their photos taken?!’ she added.

Friends claim Dr Zakrzewski (pictured at the race) accepted the lift as she was feeling ‘sick’ having flown in from Australia the night before, saying she is ‘genuinely sorry’

Examination of tracking data showed Dr Zakrzewski (pictured at the race) had covered around two-and-a-half miles of the route by car – potentially gaining herself as much as 25 minutes.

After starting out as a race doctor, she took up extreme running herself, setting a string of records.

Her feats culminated in covering a record 255 miles at the Taipei Ultramarathon in February – although the mark only stood for a month before being destroyed by an American rival.

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

‘The race didn’t go to plan,’ Adrian Stott told the BBC. ‘She said she was feeling sick and tired on the race and wanted to drop out.

‘She genuinely feels sorry for any upset caused.’

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

‘We can all relate to having to drop out of a race, but what you don’t do is start up again and cross the finish line as though you’ve done nothing wrong,’ one leading competitor told the Mail.

Wayne Drinkwater, race director for GB Ultras, said organisers ‘received information that a runner had gained a unsporting, competitive advantage during a section of the event which would have affected the standing and integrity of the results’.

He added: ‘The issue has been investigated and, having reviewed the data from our race tracking system, GPX ((CRCT)) 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.’

The saga recalls the infamous case of a marathon runner who was stripped of third place after admitting taking a bus part way round.

Rob Sloan later claimed he’d became tired at the 20-mile mark of the 2011 Kielder Marathon in Northumberland, and hopped on the free spectators’ bus.

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

Fellow competitors have also questioned whether Dr Zakrzewski’s previous results and records would now be investigated. The runner is pictured during the 2023 GB Ultras

Last night fellow competitors from the Manchester to Liverpool race expressed their astonishment and called for Dr Zakrzewski to be banned. 

Keith Johnstone, who finished 46th in the updated ranking, said: ‘If somebody doesn’t complete the course they should be named, shamed and disqualified.’

He said it was ‘great news that justice has been served’, 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 that has no prize money or qualifies you into anything.

‘I just need another 50-odd to be disqualified though before I end up on the podium.’

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

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

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