Great West Run organizers have hit out at trolls after vile abuse of the winner

Great West Run organizers have hit out at online trolls and threatened to ban those who abused 2024 female winner Anna Harold following her victory. Dr Harrold, a GP from Truro, took first place in The Great West Run in Exeter.

Despite winning the half marathon, Anna faced “outrageous” troll comments and was hit with claims about her gender suggesting she was ineligible to compete in the race. The organizers of the half marathon say they have investigated claims that Anna was ineligible to run and have since said her win still stands.

Dr Harrold, who works at a Falmouth practice, said he won in a “reasonable but not elite time” and could not believe the abuse that appeared on the race results page. “I’ve been accused of being a trans man and called disgusting, revolting, twisted, vile, a disgrace, a fraud,” the 43-year-old said.

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Anna won the women’s half marathon with a time of 1:19:28. In second place was Ruby Orchard with a time of 1:27:19, followed by Hollie Fitzgerald with 1:28:52.

After the Great West Run posted the top three on social media, trolls took to the comments to bombard Anna with hateful messages about her appearance and win. One person said: “cheating bas***d” and another said: “What a pathetic cheater that man is.”

CornwallLive previously reported that one person said: “My husband read my results and I said ‘that’s a woman with a penis.’

Despite the troll’s hateful messages, Dr. Harrold was reconfirmed by officials. The Great West Run investigated, working alongside England Athletics, to check the win against national policy and guidelines.

Releasing an official statement, The Great West Run said claims suggesting she was ineligible to take part in the race were “unfounded”. It added that they have investigated the claims made against Anna and confirmed that her winnings still stand.

The statement said: “We are aware that the winner of the 2024 Great West Run Women’s Half Marathon has received a number of unfounded and speculative comments regarding her gender and eligibility.

“The event holds a UKA license and we have worked with England Athletics to follow their policy and guidelines regarding the claims that have been made.

“Following investigation, we would like to confirm that Anna Harrold’s win at the 2024 event is eligible and still stands. We had no reason or evidence to believe otherwise.

“We do not accept the victimization and abuse that has been leveled at Anna in recent days and anyone identified as being involved will be banned from WMP events and their identities will be shared with the England Athletics authorities. Additionally, anyone making negative or derisive comments about this issue on our social media platforms will be banned.

“If you wish to contact us about this statement, you can do so by emailing us directly at: [email protected]”

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