Marathon winner disqualified
If it is too good to be true, it usually is. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that 31-year old Tabatha Hamilton was disqualified from the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Fort Oglethorpe, GA when officials noticed that timing chip data along the way did not support the 2:55:39 finish (gun) time.
As the story goes Hamilton announced to reporters after the race on Saturday that the 2:54:21 chip time was a personal record by 6 or 7 minutes. But with all this race information now easily available on the internet, that story could not be confirmed.
According to officials Hamilton had crossed the timing mat at 13.1 miles in 2:06.51, and that would have meant a sub 50 minute run on the final 13.1 miles. The current women's world record over the Half Marathon distance is 65:12 and was achieved by Kenyan Florence Kiplagat in Barcelona, Spain earlier this year.
Hamilton has apparently run in a few other marathons prior, but none of the finish times have even come close to 3 hours. At the 2013 Baltimore Running Festival last October she ran 6:08:08 and 4 years prior at the same event she recorded a 4:39:53 time. She also had run the 2011 edition of the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon and had finished that on in 4:48:47.
Race officials subsequently disqualified Hamilton from the race on Sunday night and awarded the win to 41-year old Lillian Gilmer from Nashville, TN who finished the race in 3:21:33.
"The only thing we have to go by is the data and our timing equipment was working flawlessly on Saturday. There were no other issues with any other racers and that is what we have to go by," said race co-director Jennifer Berz to slowtwitch. "And it is never fun to make a call like that."
The Times Free Press also reported that Hamilton when questioned on Monday afternoon said that she completed the full marathon and that the disqualification was a mistake. According to the article she disputed the opening 13.1 mile split, and quoted her husband of having called her out an 1:36:51 time.
The men's overall winner Jason Altman covered the distance in 2:41:07, the men's master champion Ryan Shrum in 2:50:46 and the grand master champ Hugh Enicks in 2:54:51. Other than these 3 athletes only Juan Soto (M25-29) with a 2:43:59 and Peter Volgyesi (M35-39) with a 2:45:40 went quicker than the purported time of Hamilton. The gap from grand master champion Enicks to the 6th placed overall male finisher Dustin Dutton (2:59:26) was just about 5 minutes.
"There was no woman ever ahead of me. There was kind of an out and back around mile 10 or so and I saw all the leaders ahead of me and I was in 7th at the time. During the 2nd loop I passed the 6th place guy around mile 14," said Dustin Dutton (2:59:26) to slowtwitch. "Never got passed by nobody, male or female."
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