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Marathon Runner's Second Half 'Faster Than Mo's'

Marathon Runner's Second Half 'Faster Than Mo's'

Organisers of the London Marathon are looking into how one of the competitors ran the second half of his race faster than Mo Farah.

Jason Scotland-Williams is recorded on the event's official website as running the marathon in 3hrs and 8mins.

The first half of his race took 2hrs 7mins, according to the Virgin Money London Marathon results list.

During his second 13.1 miles, he was able to accelerate so much that he crossed the finish line after another 1hr 1mins.

His second half was completed four minutes quicker than Britain's double Olympic champion, who took 1hr 5mins to cover the same distance.

The amount of time it took Mr Scotland-Williams to complete every 5km was also listed up to the halfway stage, but several of the later 5km 'splits' are missing.

The listing on the website gives the estimated times, but is unable to provide accurate figures.

The Sun newspaper claimed there are allegations the runner jumped the barrier just after the half-way point and rejoined the race at a later stage.

The suggestion is that by missing out a portion of the race, Mr Scotland-Williams was able to post an unusually fast time.

A spokeswoman for the marathon confirmed to Sky News that an investigation into Mr Scotland-Williams' times was underway.

She said: "We are aware that unfortunately a few runners who take part in the marathon ... decide to take short cuts.

"We have a number of anti-cheating measures in place during the event itself to remove such runners, and then post event when we analyse split times from our extensive timing points around the course.

"This process is one of many that take place post event and usually takes between 10-15 working days to conclude.

"Runners who are found to have cheated are removed from the results and banned from future London Marathon events."

The Sun approached Mr Scotland-Williams to ask him to explain the discrepancy but he swore at them and refused to comment further.

In 2011, runner Rob Sloan was spotted catching a bus ride at about the 20-mile (32km) mark of the Kielder Marathon in Northumberland.