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London Marathon Cheaters - let's do this
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https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6225964/london-marathon-cheat-theft-allegation/
He certainly appears to have done some distasteful stuff, but on the marathon thing he took a medal that he hadn't earned, he didn't steal it from the other runner. The other guy was already DQ'd for losing his number, nothing anybody could do about that.
Let the courts deal with him - there's still no excuse for the racist xenophobic bile in the metro comments pages.
Convenient timing - just as he goes to court, he becomes the "victim"? Really - he's so famous for marathon cheating that he's instantly recognisable in the street?
On the plus side - if his leg injury is real, then he's not going to be cheating at any more races for a while.
I notice that Jason Scotland-Williams was conspicuous by his absence this year (perhaps didn't want to embarrass the Kenyans with his second-half times?) - it seems like we've now got more competition for who's the biggest cheating twat at VLM.
You'll struggle to beat forum favourite Tommy the Clown, who used to get away with it year on year.
Or Liliya Shobukhova, but that's going down a whole different road.
All part and parcel of the most over subscribed marathon in the entire world.
Writing to local newspapers to out people, really? It's bad and he's been outed everywhere online - is that not enough.
I ran the Blackpool marathon on the same day as London and doubt one single person chested despite endless opportunities.
London is a freak show, the whole world is watching and when big charity money is at stake and numbers are so incredibly hard to come by you (or at least I) can understand why it happens.
But choosing to spend your own time investigating and outing people - that's just weird. My tuppence anyway.
Cheating at Blackpool to get a gfa place in London is a definite possibility.
Have you not heard the phrase cheats never prosper ? Some people really don't like cheating which seems fair enough to me.
The people that cheat are taking places / prizes away from those that have worked incredibly hard to either qualify for a time. Especially now the GFA process has changed.
LOL at the idea that there are no cheats in a marathon because it's not London. There are cheats in every race. For all sorts of reasons.
London is easier to analyse just because of how they publish the results. And people rightly get irritated with London cheats because the whole thing is so over subscribed.
Calling London a 'freak show' is just plain nasty. I love watching it, and full respect to all those who complete it, except for the cheats that is.
It is about raising money for charity as well as running, well liked by many as others have said, due to being over subscribed each year. Plenty of other events to be had, as you know and ran in. Hopefully not too hot that day in Blackpool?
I agree with the others that cheating can happen at any race, and if the cheater gets called out on it, I've no problem with that at all.
It's entirely the runners fault that he lost his number. How he did it I have no idea. They even provide you 4 pins for the number - and the number is rip proof.
It's pretty obvious that you have to have your number to finish the marathon - it's impossible to work the race otherwise. Good luck finding any other big race that would have done anything different.
It was obviously an accident that he lost his number - but unfortunately this means he can't finish the race, which is a shame - he must have been gutted. The villain of the peace is the guy who picks up the number, runs part way and then takes the plaudits for running a marathon. But this is unusual and he was just opportunistic - the real villains are the course cutters. The whole point of a marathon is that it's 26.2 miles and it's hard. Otherwise it wouldn't mean anything. To choose to opt out of the distance just because it's a bit hard goes against everything the marathon stands for. Anyone who doesn't complete the distance but then claims they did is a pretty poor excuse for a human being. I've put myself through all sorts of pain to finish marathons, and I take pride in knowing that I can achieve my goals despite adversity. I just don't understand why someone would cheat, they have to live with knowing what kind of person they are. No excuses, I'm happy to see these people called out for what they are - if they want to take the medal and pose for the pictures then they deserve to be shamed.
They should also be permanently disqualified to prevent them taking up a real runner's place in a race which is very much in demand.
Anyway, rant over. Why can't they just introduce some sort of system where you don't get into the finisher's funnel (and get your medal, photos, etc) until the system confirms that you've run over every timing mat? If you haven't, you could be diverted through a different channel to either pick up your bag (if you've not run the full distance) or have your result queried (e.g.- race officials could confirm that your chip has indeed failed). I'm sure a simple barcode scan after the finish line could talk to the timing system and easily send the vast majority of honest runners through the normal finish process, while accommodating the DNFs and the timing "anomalies"?
VLM - if you read this, feel free to use my idea, all it will cost you is lifetime entry for me..........
They could put a timing mat at the end of the mall. Anyone crossing that without the full set of timings from the rest of the course gets taken out by snipers from the roof of Buckingham Palace.