Fully agree, I HATE cheaters. I put way too much $ and time into this sport to know that this sort of stuff is going on. This isn't a 5K at your local church folks...
Other things that make me more uncomfortable about this whole fiasco:
- This guy had to go through the entire process of signing waivers and affirming emergency contact/health insurance issues prior to the race. Many events require athletes to waive risks to the race director/organizing entity as well as the venue so having someone fraudulently sign off on this exposes WTC as well as the venue (Chankanaab?) regardless of what portion of the race he elected to participate in.
- The OP got a phone call from WTC because she didn't register any splits during the entire day but yet still recorded a top-10 finish time in her AG. Unfair to her to have to try and explain this to WTC ex post facto. And, based on her previous IM finishes, this looks like a pretty huge PR (on the order of multiple hours) so I am sure WTC was curious as to how she blew the doors off her previous times AND did not register any splits.
- Plenty of athletes who are there to just comPLETE and not comPETE an event have medical/trauma issues even if going at a pedestrian pace -- hit by a support vehicle on the bike, run off the road by another athlete (a la IM FL 2011 bike course thread), etc... So, what if something like this happened to him? He would have been identified as the wrong person as race/emergency personnel would likely have errantly identified him as the OP. Heck, he is in a predominantly Spanish-speaking country, I can nearly guarantee that there would have been 100% reliance on the bib number he was wearing for identification purposes. Imagine the OP's emergency contact getting a phone call on the day of the event telling said contact that their loved one was being transported to a hospital in Cozumel? "I didn't think she was going to the event???"
- Can you imagine what it would be like to actually show up to a race you were registered for and find out that someone who pulled a similar act had already picked up your race packet? Not what I would want to be dealing with 48-72 hours out from an "A" race. Think about it: anyone can go on to the specific race websites and see the list of registrants > they make a similar fake ID using your name and age but maintaining their photo > pickup your packet first thing when registration opens (so as to pretty much guarantee they get to your packet before you do)... Scary! This will probably result in another "step" in the process that WTC uses during on-site packet pick-up, but I guess it will be worth the wait if they can guarantee that no lowlifes like this try to ruin it for everyone.
And, as for the legal ramifications, I agree that this is between WTC and the offending party (parties?). I agree there was a theft of services and he defrauded a business. WTC needs to ban this guy for life. WTC needs to consider penalizing the accomplice (his g/f) for playing along with it all and allowing him to PACE her during the run -- sorry dude, it WAS PACING no question about it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, if she got a KQ slot out of this she needs to forfeit it. If she affected the roll-down process in any way because of her finishing position in the AG there needs to be additional penalties as well.
Other things that make me more uncomfortable about this whole fiasco:
- This guy had to go through the entire process of signing waivers and affirming emergency contact/health insurance issues prior to the race. Many events require athletes to waive risks to the race director/organizing entity as well as the venue so having someone fraudulently sign off on this exposes WTC as well as the venue (Chankanaab?) regardless of what portion of the race he elected to participate in.
- The OP got a phone call from WTC because she didn't register any splits during the entire day but yet still recorded a top-10 finish time in her AG. Unfair to her to have to try and explain this to WTC ex post facto. And, based on her previous IM finishes, this looks like a pretty huge PR (on the order of multiple hours) so I am sure WTC was curious as to how she blew the doors off her previous times AND did not register any splits.
- Plenty of athletes who are there to just comPLETE and not comPETE an event have medical/trauma issues even if going at a pedestrian pace -- hit by a support vehicle on the bike, run off the road by another athlete (a la IM FL 2011 bike course thread), etc... So, what if something like this happened to him? He would have been identified as the wrong person as race/emergency personnel would likely have errantly identified him as the OP. Heck, he is in a predominantly Spanish-speaking country, I can nearly guarantee that there would have been 100% reliance on the bib number he was wearing for identification purposes. Imagine the OP's emergency contact getting a phone call on the day of the event telling said contact that their loved one was being transported to a hospital in Cozumel? "I didn't think she was going to the event???"
- Can you imagine what it would be like to actually show up to a race you were registered for and find out that someone who pulled a similar act had already picked up your race packet? Not what I would want to be dealing with 48-72 hours out from an "A" race. Think about it: anyone can go on to the specific race websites and see the list of registrants > they make a similar fake ID using your name and age but maintaining their photo > pickup your packet first thing when registration opens (so as to pretty much guarantee they get to your packet before you do)... Scary! This will probably result in another "step" in the process that WTC uses during on-site packet pick-up, but I guess it will be worth the wait if they can guarantee that no lowlifes like this try to ruin it for everyone.
And, as for the legal ramifications, I agree that this is between WTC and the offending party (parties?). I agree there was a theft of services and he defrauded a business. WTC needs to ban this guy for life. WTC needs to consider penalizing the accomplice (his g/f) for playing along with it all and allowing him to PACE her during the run -- sorry dude, it WAS PACING no question about it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, if she got a KQ slot out of this she needs to forfeit it. If she affected the roll-down process in any way because of her finishing position in the AG there needs to be additional penalties as well.