Joasia Zakrzewski, an ultramarathon athlete, came in third at the 50-mile 2023 GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool race earlier this month. Unfortunately, she didn't run the race fairly.
After it was determined that Zakrzewski had driven 2.5 miles of the marathon course, she was disqualified.
She says she was just finishing up the race in "a non-competitive way" after becoming hurt, but she nevertheless took the third-place trophy and posed for pictures.
She says she was "tired and jetlagged and sick" when she got the award.
"I made a massive error accepting the trophy and should have handed it back," Zakrzewski said to the BBC. I was exhausted, suffering from jet lag, and ill. I take full responsibility; I should not have allowed photographs to be taken while I was ill and too distracted to make good decisions.
In the seven days following the competition, Joasia made no effort to inform us of the error, let us revise the standings, or retrieve the third-place trophy.
Joasia earned her medal and trophy once she crossed the finish line timing mat at the designated finish area. Joasia did not tell the event staff that she was "not running the race competitively" until after the race was over.
He said, "We didn't find out that Joasia had vehicle transport at any point in the race until we got information after the race from another participant, and none of our event team in question were aware of this, with written declarations to prove this.
"If we had known about this during the race, we would have been immediately disqualified."