Running News Daily

Dublin cop banned for life after taking public transit to finish last month’s race

An Irish runner, who works as a police officer, has been barred for life from the Dublin Marathon after he was allegedly caught taking public transit to finish last month’s race. 

Race organizers began investigating the police officer’s result when they found that he negative-split his marathon by 50 minutes.

The officer averaged six-minute kilometers through halfway and increased his pace to a staggering 3:45 per kilometer in the final 21 kilometers.

He was allegedly seen boarding Dublin’s streetcar system, the Luas, which he used to get closer to the finish line. 

The officer finished in the top six per cent of all runners, but has since been disqualified and forced to apologize, returning his medal and T-shirt. His result was removed from the Dublin Marathon results.

Race organizers told the Irish Mirror they have finished their investigation and said the individual (who was not named) will be banned from all future events at the Dublin Marathon.

Coincidentally, the man caught cheating works for the anti-corruption unit of the Dublin Police and is tasked with investigating wrongdoing within the force. According to the Irish Independent, the police force is also conducting a fact-finding review. 

An estimated 25,000 runners took part in the race around Dublin on October 30. The marathon route was one lap around the city and was won by Taoufik Allam of Morocco in 2:11:30 and Nigist Muluneh of Ethiopia in 2:28:31.