Phantom Glasgow parkrun Winner Disqualified

17 NOV2009

The first person over the finish line at the 48th Glasgow parkrun had registered with the name of a fictional character and a made up running club name. He was one of a number of false names that the organisers have noticed during the last year.

Glasgow parkrun told www.scottishrunningguide.com:
"Whether our characters are all courtesy of the same person or not, we are not sure. But it's a lame copy to be honest. It's not funny any more and is showing a lack of respect to an event that a lot of people give up their time to provide."

As well as being disrespectful to other runners and volunteers, fake registration could result in difficulties should the runner be involved in an accident etc. The Glasgow parkrun team have therefore, correctly, decided not to accept the fake registration and have deleted the associated result.

So, this week's event winner and top points scorer was Bellahouston Road Runner Liam Conway (VM40-44). Liam completed the course in 17:10, improving on his course PB by ten seconds. David Houston, (SM20-24) of Glasgow University Hares & Hounds placed second in a time of 17:23 with parkrun stalwart George Taylor (VM45-49) representing Giffnock North AAC just one second behind.

Three Top Women

In the women's race, three of the countries most successful female runners placed first, second and third. Toni McIntosh (SW25-29) of Ayr Seaforth AAC won yet another race but surprisingly only her second success at the Pollok Park weekly 5k. Toni crossed the line in 17:56 and scored an age-graded performance of 82.53%. Adventure runner and Scotland Mountain Marathon Team member, Iona Robertson (SW25-29) of Bellahouston Road Runners placed second by 69 seconds. Clydesdale Harrier Marina McCallum, (VW35-39), who placed second woman and first woman vet at last week's Stranraer 10k, claimed third place with a time of 20:19.

Unattached runner Gordon Sheridan (M50-54) closed the event by placing 177th in a time of 58:48, a new PB by over 3 minutes.