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Scottish runner Joasia Zakrzewski has been banned for a year (12 months) for using a vehicle in the GB Ultras Manchester to Liverpool 50-mile race.
She was banned by the UK athletics disciplinary body for using a car in the race. The tracking system showed that the leading ultra-marathon runner covered a distance of four kilometers using a car at the event.
Zakrzewski claimed that she had informed the officials at the GB Ultras about using a car in the race. However, The Independent Disciplinary Panel of UK Athletics disagreed with the Scottish runner's claims.
The Independent Disciplinary Panel of UK Athletics stated that Joasia Zakrzewski collected the third-place award despite completing the race in a non-competitive way and she shouldn't have done so knowing that she had completed a part of the race by traveling in a car.
“The claimant had collected the trophy at the end of the race, something which she should have not done if she was completing the race on a non-competitive basis,” they said.
They also added that the 47-year-old athlete didn't return the trophy to the officials timely. The statement read:
“She also did not seek to return the trophy in the week following the race.”
The statement added:
"Even if she was suffering from brain fog on the day of the race, she had a week following the race to realise her actions and return the trophy, which she did not do."
Joasia Zakrzewski's achievements over the years
Joasia Zakrzewski was born and brought up in Dumfries, Scotland. However, the Scottish athlete has moved to Australia. The 47-year-old represented Scotland at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in the marathon.
She also won the 48-hour race at the Taipei Ultramarathon in Taiwan, setting a world record distance of 255 miles in February this year.
Zakrzewski also represented Great Britain at the IAU World 100km Championships in several editions of the event. She won three medals, which included two bronze and a silver.
She won the bronze medals in 2014 and 2015 and the silver medal came during the 2011 edition of the IAU World 100km Championships.
At the age of 44, she won a 24-hour race in Australia, having covered a distance of 236.561km in 2022.
