Ultramarathoner Disqualified For Accepting Car Ride During Race

Dr. Joasia Zakrzewski insists her decision wasn’t malicious.

For as long as humans have been running great distances, they have been skirting the rules of the competition.

The 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis had Frederick Lorz, who appeared to win but was later disqualified after it was revealed he rode in a car for 11 miles during the race. The 1980 Boston Marathon had Rosie Ruiz, whose win was invalidated as she was believed to have barely run the race at all.

And now, 2023 has Dr. Joasia Zakrzewski.

Zakrzewski, an ultramarathoner from Scotland, was disqualified from the Manchester to Liverpool Ultra in England for hitching a ride in a friend’s car during the 50-mile race.

She finished third in the April 7 run, but forfeited her place to a fellow Brit, Mel Sykes, the original fourth-place finisher.

A Tuesday report from Angie Brown of BBC Scotland stated that Zakrzewski “is understood to have been tracked on GPX mapping data covering a mile of the race in just (a minute and 40 seconds).”

Zakrzewski was apologetic, blaming sickness and jet lag after landing in England from Australia the previous evening.

“It wasn’t malicious; it was miscommunication,” Zakrzewski said. “I would never purposefully cheat, and this was not a target race, but I don’t want to make excuses.”