London Marathon Cheaters - let's do this

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  • bol saucebol sauce ✭✭✭
    The lying bs**d! He walked for long enough to make his finishing time believable and then filmed himself jogging through the finish!! Course, we can't see any of that now as he's blocked all access. Just as a cheat would.
    Also, when he posted up about the GBS, please note his comments about when he went on stag do's, that he was so debilitated by his illness that he had to leave his mates to carry on partying about 4am to go to bed. Stuffing crap has wound me up. They should leave it all on as a DQ as already mentioned, so that everyone can see it all. Am going to contact some of his sponsors when I've calmed down.
  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭
    just got the paper. nice big picture of him as well. job done!!!
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    From the graphic on The Times article, it shows that Mr Walker took a very long time to go from 40K to the finish - averaging 1.48mph - in order to make his finish time believable.  A general comment though is that I do feel the article has painted him in a more positive light than he deserves!

    Shame the number swappers from the running club haven't been reported on, but I suppose it's only runners that would really care about that kind of stuff, whereas it's possibly not much of a story for non runners.
  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭
    I pointed this out when I complained about his result and suggested that either this was an argument as to why there is no way he could have done the previous 15k as claimed, or he sat down knowing that his time was too incredible (more likely) so showing utter dishonesty and intent. It's no excuse that his legs had gone. You dont then claim your medal etc, you leave the race. 

    It's good to know that professional journalists are wise to this and have such software. Hopefully they'll check back here next April. 
  • I'd like to think most people who read the Times article are intelligent enough to draw the obvious conclusion.

    The facts don't lie, but the excuses, while lacking credibility, are still incredibly irritating.

     I just hope no one believes them and that any charity involved gets any money raised albeit, in some cases, under false pretences.

  • Superfly walkers Twitter is back.  Claiming officials said he could cut course.... he doesn't state it but presumably they also said he could claim medal, pose with it, pretend to be a genuine finisher, brag on social media about the result, dispute people calling him a cheat, fail to tell vmlm that he should be removed from results....
  • Oh my God. He's literally the worst.
  • DT19DT19 ✭✭✭
    well you've got to come out with some bullshit if you've taken the glory at the finish and then found yourself in the national press as the lead cheat on the story. he would have more credibility of he was my friend if at this stage he just apologised and told the truth. 
  • rodeofliprodeoflip ✭✭✭
    I hope karma is real.
  • andyc209andyc209 ✭✭✭
    he just followed me on Twitter - seems he thinks he has done nothing wrong! I can feel a question or two coming his way! 
  • andyc209 said:
    he just followed me on Twitter - seems he thinks he has done nothing wrong! I can feel a question or two coming his way! 
    He's blocked me... Again.
  • He had a twitter row with me last night - before deleting all his tweets.

    In summary, he said that "when you have £2k to raise for a good charity you have to do these things"  He also claimed that having "run two London's previously he knew the rules".  Hmmmmm

    Also in response to an old tweet of mine where I'd commented I'd had a bad race and London was my slowest time in 25 marathons he responded with "Pussy".  That made me laugh the most / gave me the greatest satisfaction.  The guy who found it too much and ducked under the barrier called the guy who found it too much but struggled through 'a pussy'.  Hilarious!!

    I'm not sure what can still be seen under 'tweets and replies' as he's now deleted his stuff.  I'm done on him.  Made my point!

  • He really is a piece of work.

    You don't do these things if you're raising money for charities. You do these things if you're a cheat.
  • The guy is a delusional nob.  At least he's been shown up for his lies. 
  • "When you have £2k to raise for a good charity you have to do these things." 

    Ironically, these days you don't actually have to do anything at all, with most paid up front rather than 'pledged' or whatever.  He could have stayed in bed and told everyone he'd been ill and very few, if any, would ask for their money back.  Certainly none would if he'd said it had all been too much on a hot day.

    I've said before I can see how someone walking to the finish doesn't realise they'll still get a time and end up with a medal and t-shirt - they're pretty much thrust at you as you cross the line.  I can kind of see why some get into a sense of denial and not want to admit that actually no, they hadn't finished the course.  But this guy is a deliberate cheat - he waited for almost an hour to legitimise his time.  If he'd done that before the 40k mark he'd have probably got away with it, just a bunch of missed mats but otherwise believable split times.

  • JT141JT141 ✭✭✭
    The company refurbing Big Ben are looking for a monumental bell end. I've forwarded Chris' details.
  • bol saucebol sauce ✭✭✭
    I have just emailed the local paper Dewsbury Reporter about him, and given links to the Times article and to these pages. Don't know if they will be interested, but their email address is dewsbury.editorial@jpress.co.uk and their twitter account is @DewsburyReporter.
  • bol sauce said:
    I have just emailed the local paper Dewsbury Reporter about him, and given links to the Times article and to these pages. Don't know if they will be interested, but their email address is dewsbury.editorial@jpress.co.uk and their twitter account is @DewsburyReporter.
    I emailed them a while back. No response
  • Snail2Snail2 ✭✭✭
    The guy at www.MarathonInvestigation.com has just forced the resignation of a couple of club committee members at Malvern Joggers. (Sorry, can't work out how to post a link).

    Can't help thinking that it should be in VLM's interests to be pursuing these sort of cases themselves - and to be actively publicising them. The apparent absence of any "news" of this sort from their side tends to give the impression that they only really care about the elites and "celebrities".
  • AW3AW3 ✭✭✭
    I think it's more that VMLM want to portray a positive image around the event, rather than persecuting their own participants.

    Don't get me wrong, all the Chris Walkers deserve their just desserts but I don't think it's the kind of image VMLM want to portray themselves, when they know that 99% of the general public couldn't give two hoots if some idiot cut the course. 
  • The give a hoot or two when The Times is running a story on course cutters, but apart from quietly removing them from the results they don't really want to publicise it - they're more interested in quoting the record number of finishers, which would have included all the cheats.  They certainly don't really care if some bloke from Malvern Joggers ran with his wife's number.
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome of the Malvern Runners thing.  I agree non-runners wouldn't care about that story at all, but I do as a club runner, and out of all the stories that one irked me the most.  The reason for this is that, deep down, the cheaters know they've cheated and if they're fine with that, that's up to them.  But for members of a club (with committee roles) to put our sport into a negative light, and flout the VMLM rules, really annoyed me!  I see their Facebook group has been locked down now, whereas before it was fully open to anyone.

    If it does get published in the local paper, I'd like to see a copy of the piece, if anyone spots it.
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    And yes, I think Brasher has more or less said they don't like to promote the cheats, as in they like to promote the positive sides to the event.  I saw some quote in an article from him about it, but I can't find it now.  If I find it I'll post it.
  • The Malvern committee guy who copied another number deserves all he gets.  The guy with his wife's number?  Well, if it was a case that she entered the ballot just to maximise the chances of getting him an entry then that's a clearly not on.  OTOH if she had a place of her own, got injured late on and let him take the place rather than defer then that's still not right but I'm less fussed TBH.  Assuming he's not getting her a GFA place, of course.
  • Snail2Snail2 ✭✭✭
    @ Big_G: Found the article online in Runners World! ("Inside the world of race cheats"). Extract: "‘It’s not really an issue we want to throw any light on,’ says London Marathon race director Hugh Brasher, adding, ‘We’re not into naming and shaming.’ The race’s policy is to investigate any anomalous results and ask for an explanation from the runner. If they’re still not satisfied, they ask for the finisher medal to be returned and ban the runner for life."

    I can understand that they don't want to "name and shame". And particularly before getting an explanation, as it is possible to get it wrong - as demonstrated on here sometimes :/ . But in a race where thousands of would-be entrants are disappointed every year, leading to a greater incentive to cheat, many would see it as a positive if they said something like '... we removed x people from the results in the weeks after the race, because we identified that either they cut the course, or ran with a old, copied or someone else's race number'. It would demonstrate that it is an issue they are on top of, and discourage people from trying it on in future. (Unless perhaps x is so small that it shows only a token effort?)

    And if everyone knew that they were proactively doing it (and with access to the full data they can do a far more comprehensive job than anyone else), there would perhaps be less incentive for others to "name and shame" those found on a more random basis. :)
  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Thanks Snail, yeah that was the article.  Couldn't find it again when I quickly googled earlier, and I couldn't remember where I read it!

    CD, I still think people in a running club should know a lot better than to swap numbers.  Just my opinion.
  • You'd think that number swapping in a club could put their allocation of Marathon places at risk ? 
  •  BigG - is it right?  No.  Should they know better?  Well yes, especially if it's a club place they're using.  If I were running VLM would I put resources into rooting them all out?  No, probably not.

    I wouldn't have thought that number swapping or other cheating by a club member would put that club's allocation at risk, unless it was one of those club place being abused.

  • Big_GBig_G ✭✭✭
    Fair enough CD, but I disagree as I would hope the organisers root out all forms of cheating or rule breaking. 
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