Race timers will check for cheats in next year’s Sun Run

Steps are being taken to catch cheats at next year’s annual Sun Run.

That comes after two runners in Sunday’s 10-kilometre event were stripped of their titles and banned from the race in future.

Race organizers informed Vancouver’s Neena Cheema her first place in the women’s 50 to 54 age category was removed from the record books. Richmond’s Mohammed Razak also had his first-place title in the men’s 55 to 59 category taken away.

According to Andre Yelle, who owns the timing company called Sportstats West, next year interval times will be taken for the runners at various stages of the Sun Run.

”One of the things we will put in place for next year is a system to give more information on their times during the race,” he said. “It will allow us to red-flag people. We will notice people who have odd times.”

Yelle said he has done the timing for more than 400 races, and in almost every event there are people with times that don’t jibe. But in most cases he said, it is a mistake — the racers have gone off course.

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“Sometimes they have to go to the bathroom and get a block away and jump back on the course. It happens all the time.”

But in most cases, Yelle said, the runners themselves notice their time is not accurate and inform the race organizers, “and we remove their time.”

Yelle is scratching his head at the two cheats caught in Sunday’s race. “There is very little they gain from it. What do they get by cheating? There is no prize money.”

In some cases, Yelle said, runners who deliberately take shortcuts are in the race “due to peer pressure.

“They get pressured by others in the company to join the running team and they just want to get it over with. There are very few malicious cheats,” he said.

Sun Run race director Tim Hopkins said he will wait for the recommendations from Yelle. “We haven’t decided how many timed intervals there will be,” he said. “Timing intervals are a polite way of making sure people stay on the course route.”

Mick Maguire, the race director of the upcoming North Shore Triathlon, said those who are hard-core runners know when a race time isn’t right.”It is easy to spot the cheaters if you are looking for it.

“You get one or two in every race trying to cheat,” he added. “It’s human nature — you hate to see it, but it happens.”

According to clinical psychologist Dr. Joti Samra, the discovery of some cheats at a so-called fun run is not surprising.”People will cheat with insurance fraud, in card games, ICBC claims,” she points out.

With the two cheats caught at the Sun Run, Samra feels the publicity may do one thing.

“My guess is they are people who will not cheat again.”