A WOMAN WHO was initially credited with winning the St Louis Marathon has been disqualified after it emerged that she had not completed the entire course.
The 26-year-old woman, identified as Kendall Schler, is believed to have somehow slipped onto the course after the final checkpoint and crossed the line before eventual winner Andrea Karl.
Karl, a doctoral candidate at Washington University in St Louis, finished the race in an impressive two hours, 54 minutes and 29 seconds. But instead of celebrating her win, officials at the line surprised her with the news that another woman had finished almost four minutes ahead of her.
“It’s a difficult situation for everybody, including the people who run a fair race and don’t get the recognition they should receive,” Nancy Lieberman, president of the St Louis Marathon, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
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“I said to her [Schler], ‘It looks like you perpetrated a fraud.’ I have nothing legitimate that says she officially started and ran 26.2 miles in 2014 or 2015.”
No times were electronically registered from Schler’s official bib, which she had covered with a shirt, violating marathon rules. As well as that, none of the spotters had seen her and none of the photographers had captured her on camera.
Schler was contacted on Wednesday and asked to provide proof that she had participated in the full event. When she couldn’t, she was disqualified.
It was then discovered that she had pulled this trick before. Race officials believe she had done the very same thing one year ago, when she finished third and qualified for the Boston Marathon.
Both her times have now been erased and her name removed from the Boston Marathon’s online list of entrants.
Lieberman expressed her regret that “the true winner did everything right and didn’t get her due”.
“There’s a euphoria the winner gets, breaking the tape and having the crowd cheer”.
Even though that moment was stolen from Andrea Karl, she has at least been recognised as the true winner, awarded the $1,500 prize money and been given her place in the Boston Marathon.
A marathon 'winner' has been disqualified for not running the entire course
A WOMAN WHO was initially credited with winning the St Louis Marathon has been disqualified after it emerged that she had not completed the entire course.
The 26-year-old woman, identified as Kendall Schler, is believed to have somehow slipped onto the course after the final checkpoint and crossed the line before eventual winner Andrea Karl.
Karl, a doctoral candidate at Washington University in St Louis, finished the race in an impressive two hours, 54 minutes and 29 seconds. But instead of celebrating her win, officials at the line surprised her with the news that another woman had finished almost four minutes ahead of her.
“It’s a difficult situation for everybody, including the people who run a fair race and don’t get the recognition they should receive,” Nancy Lieberman, president of the St Louis Marathon, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
“I said to her [Schler], ‘It looks like you perpetrated a fraud.’ I have nothing legitimate that says she officially started and ran 26.2 miles in 2014 or 2015.”
No times were electronically registered from Schler’s official bib, which she had covered with a shirt, violating marathon rules. As well as that, none of the spotters had seen her and none of the photographers had captured her on camera.
Schler was contacted on Wednesday and asked to provide proof that she had participated in the full event. When she couldn’t, she was disqualified.
It was then discovered that she had pulled this trick before. Race officials believe she had done the very same thing one year ago, when she finished third and qualified for the Boston Marathon.
Both her times have now been erased and her name removed from the Boston Marathon’s online list of entrants.
Lieberman expressed her regret that “the true winner did everything right and didn’t get her due”.
“There’s a euphoria the winner gets, breaking the tape and having the crowd cheer”.
Even though that moment was stolen from Andrea Karl, she has at least been recognised as the true winner, awarded the $1,500 prize money and been given her place in the Boston Marathon.
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Andrea Karl Athletics Boston Marathon Cheat Disqualified Kendall Schler St Louis Marathon