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Athlete loses titles and faces ban after discovery of his dishonesty

Until now, Kelly Agnew was seen as superhuman after he won the last four 48-hour Across the Years ultramarathons since 2014 when he was the first to run 201.5 miles within the allotted time.

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Until now, Kelly Agnew was seen as superhuman after he won the last four 48-hour Across the Years ultramarathons since 2014 when he was the first to run 201.5 miles within the allotted time, according to odditycentral.com.

Event organisers became suspicious when he won the 2015 48-hour ultramarathon by more than 55 minutes.

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They then hired Mark Melton, of MCM timing, to track Agnew during the multi-day looped course in Phoenix, the news portal reported.

It was during the tracking that it was discovered that Agnew has not been faithful over the years. At some points he was seen hiding in a portable toilet for minutes before continuing the race.

File Photo

Agnew also reportedly “missed checkpoints at the Leadville 100 race, and has suspicious times recorded for a number of other events.”

Event organisers then took back racing bib from the 45-year-old man, reversed his titles from the four other races where he missed specific check-in points, and then banned him from participating in future events.

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They subsequently wrote on Facebook that, “He was witnessed circling back at the start/finish staging area after completing a lap, spending over 7 minutes in a portable restroom and then ‘completing’ the lap and going on for his next without actually running the mile plus loop.

“It saddens us to see this take place at an event that is centered around camaraderie among runners and support of top performances.

“This type of cheating is not tolerated by our race or race organization. At this point in time, Kelly will not be welcome back to participate in races organized by Aravaipa Running. We would now like to take this time to recognize the new podium placings of our past events.”

Organisers added that, “These runners worked hard in their legitimate runs, and we are sorry that this was not found out sooner so you could receive the recognition you deserved at the time. We will be recommissioning awards for the following runners to be sent out soon.”

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