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London Marathon Cheaters - let's do this
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You mean running on a wet plastic sheet while marshalls dressed as Mr Blobby pelt you with wet sponges?
Or maybe put on a bus back to Greenwich and told to "do it properly, or not at all."
But the result is that it could have a significant impact on anyone considering cheating for the next several years. Which may be what VMLM wanted to achieve.
One message seems clear: if you haven't legally entered the race and paid the entry fee, then crossing the finish line and claiming a medal /goody bag risks prosecution & jail for fraud/theft. (It is not inconceivable that they could prosecute for running any part of the course and using drinks stations, but this seems less likely). Anyone running with a photocopied or old number is in this category.
Course cutters have at least paid an entry fee, so the stated policy of just asking them to return their medal (if they crossed the finish line and claimed one) seems more appropriate.
Bib swappers are a bit more of a grey area, since someone will have paid an entry fee. But bibs are not transferable. So the bib donor is perhaps just in breach of contract - probably risking future entry applications being refused. But the bib recipient could be regarded as in the first category above, and risking prosecution.
Agree OTT. People cheat at London every year - are they going to prosecute all of them? The only thing that's different about this guy is that it was high-profile. This is no worse than the short-cutters, and they don't seem too fussed about that.
They should have sent him back to the start line and made him run the full route on the day, that would have been punishment enough!
I spoke with him (Liam Convery, as mentioned in the article) -fame at last! I mentioned JSW to him, we had a long conversation which he distilled down to a couple of sentences (and removed any verbal expletives!). He seemed really interested and obviously took time to do his research and I thought the article was well-written and well-balanced.
I was interested in JSW's response, and the fact that he didn't really deny cheating outright, he sounded more like a politician dodging the question by saying "I think the important issue here is....(insert favourite subject, don't answer the question)....." He is quoted as saying later that "“I’m an achiever, I’m a competitive person, I like to be the best at what I do,” he says. “That’s just how I am. If other people don’t have that drive or that thirst for success or that hunger, I can’t help that.”
Hmm...you're not an achiever, you didn't even finish a marathon.
Hardly competitive - taking over 2 hours to run a half and then cheating to skip the second half is hardly impressive.
The best at what you do? There are about 38000 people even just on that day that ran all the way and are therefore better than you. You're just about the worst at what you do. You're not even the best cheat - you got caught.
And if you had the drive or thirst for success then maybe you would have kept running and actually achieved that success. As it is, you're just a dickhead who has been shown to be a pathetic loser - every marathon is full of individual stories of personal achievement, and you are worse than just an onlooker.
Then - "At the same time, that doesn’t take away from my previous accomplishments, doesn’t take away from what I’ve achieved in terms of fundraising, and certainly doesn’t take away from who I am as a person". Errr, yes it does, Massively. Presumably your previous "achievements" were also based on deliberate cheating, and you never actually achieved what you said you did. You took money from people under false pretences, whether intended for charity or not. And who you are as a person - that can only be judged based on what you've done and on how you're responded. That makes you a four-star bell-end.
Sheesh - I had just about got over my rage with VLM cheats since April, and now I'm all annoyed all over again!
Somewhat eclipses the number of fraudsters at London.
Reply on the ABC Twitter feed made me laugh