Shameful: Drug cheat Liza Hunter-Galvan wins $10,000 at 2015 Boston Marathon

The Penn Relays are on tv right now and there are several convicted drug cheats competing. Does this make Penn worse than the BAA?

Official response from BAA:

http://texasrunningpost.com/news/boston-marathon-statement-regarding-liza-hunter-galvan-confusing-conflicting/

Txrunpost wrote:

Official response from BAA:

http://texasrunningpost.com/news/boston-marathon-statement-regarding-liza-hunter-galvan-confusing-conflicting/

BAA is in a bad spot that could have gotten ugly if they denied the payout because it's nothing but an overwhelming amount of suspicion as soon as lawyers get involved.

BAA could have released a statement along those lines but could not be bothered to fact check. Awesome. Good to know they are protecting the integrity of the sport.

Not an invited runner. Don't say you weren't told, Letsrun trolls.

Invited runner or not, either the Boston Marathon plays by the World Marathon Majors agreement or doesn't. They say they had no knowledge yet Hunter-Galvan was given an elite bib?

Seems like they aren't being truthful. Race officials were probably too concerned with making sure there were enough snipers and helicopters in position at the starting area.

You don't think a 2:29 marathoner deserves an elite bib?

Mioplio wrote:

Not an invited runner. Don't say you weren't told, Letsrun trolls.

The B.A.A. is trying to cover their tail. Did they go out on their way to "invite" her to the race? No. Once she applied and payed her fee though, they did send her an elite athlete invite email just as they do to every female in the elite start. This is how its done. With all the details that go into Boston, I can't believe this one was over looked. She should not have been in that elite field.

You don't think a 2:29 marathoner deserves to be in the elite field?

Ran 2:29 in 2008 and then caught doping just a few months later.

ROTFLMAO

Who dat?? wrote:

You don't think a 2:29 marathoner deserves to be in the elite field?

Exactly.

Of course she deserves to be there.

She didn't even deserve to be in the race. I would sue B.A.A for this if I was second place women.

yep, bib# 119 is clearly NOT an invited runner, they just give those out to anyone. lol, -1329/10 for the troll attempt.

Mioplio wrote:

Not an invited runner. Don't say you weren't told, Letsrun trolls.

BolderBoulder wrote:

She didn't even deserve to be in the race. I would sue B.A.A for this if I was second place women.

Getting beat by a woman?

You're a loser.

Being in the elite field and being invited are two entirely different categories.

There are maybe 30 or so invited runners, maybe a handful more. But having the elite start does not mean you were invited. It just means you're among the top 60-75 runners and therefore will be given a few more accommodations.

For instance, you can be a male elite runner if you run say 2:23 as a qualifier. But you will not be invited and you will not receive any special treatment above pre-race space in the church. Perhaps you may also receive entry into the Fairmont for a post-race massage. But even in the church, you are going to be relegated to a common area of the church. You won't get a special room for just yourself and your group, like Meb, Desisa, or some of the invited elites.

More proof LHG was not invited - her name was not on her bib. She is just F119 in photos. The top seeded master, F101, Nuta Olaru, is. F104, Gruca has her name on the bib too. It appears that the bibs with names ends at F106 - Davenport.

What really happened Monday (and the leadup to it) is that Liza was admitted into the race and whether the BAA's policy is to not allow former suspended runners into the race, or they just missed it during registration, we will likely never know. This will all be forgotten about very quickly.

LHG was not expected to finish top 3 (let alone win the division) and ... she did. Keep in mind, the winning master's time in 2014 was 2:36, then 2:37; 2:41. Those results are consistent with 2013's winning master's times as well. This year, LHG's time this year was a 2:48. I strongly doubt the BAA thought that she would win the division when she registered and that may be why she could have been overlooked as a registered competitor.

Now the BAA is faced with two prospects: deny her prize money and face a lawsuit. Or, pay her and take whatever PR hit there is and make sure any lapse (if there was one in the first place) does not happen in 2016.

No - she was not invited wrote:

Now the BAA is faced with two prospects: deny her prize money and face a lawsuit. Or, pay her and take whatever PR hit there is and make sure any lapse (if there was one in the first place) does not happen in 2016.

How about option 3? Pay LHG her $10k and write it off as a mistake and then pay the rest of the field what they would have earned had LHG not been in the field.

BAA lost more than $10k in spilled Gatorade. The dollars are small for such a major event to do the right thing. They should also play it out in the Press and receive all kinds of positive press for paying for their mistake.

One thing is certain. The mistake was not made by the clean athletes.

Galvan is not some B team East African who got caught doping while running small US road races for $1,500 prize purses. She has represented NZ in the Olympics twice and WCs once. She had a pretty high profile doping bust.

Boston cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim to ban people with a doping violation and then pay prize money to someone with a doping violation just because they were not really an "invited" runner. The fact of the matter is that Galvan started with the elite women. That is not something that you get to do without a good bit of scrutiny from race organizers.

This is your opinion and semantics. The fact is that B.A.A. sent her (along with every other female elite) an email with the wording "We are extending you an invitation to the Elite Womens Start." "INVITATION"

B.A.A. needs to pay her but give a public statement on this obvious mistake.

Precious Roy wrote:

Boston cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim to ban people with a doping violation and then pay prize money to someone with a doping violation just because they were not really an "invited" runner.

LHG does not have a doping violation.

You've probably had a parking or speeding ticket at some point in your life, which is against the law by the way, and yet you're still driving a car.

That's because once you pay the fine, you are free to keep driving.

Invitation wrote:

This is your opinion and semantics. The fact is that B.A.A. sent her (along with every other female elite) an email with the wording "We are extending you an invitation to the Elite Womens Start." "INVITATION"

The BAA says she was not invited to participate; she entered on her own. Once entered, the BAA may have "invited" her to start with the other elites, but this is not the same as being invited to participate.