Cheating: Yer doin' it Wrong!!

This is a great story that encapsulates the problems of Mexico's long history of one party rule by the PRI. Roberto Madrazo, the PRI's candidate in the 2006 presidential election , ex-governor of Tabasco, ex-president of the Party, had apparently run, and won his age bracket, in the Berlin Marathon on September 30th. Photographs of him celebrating as he crossed the finish line made the front pages of Mexican newspapers.

Yesterday however, race officials disqualified Madrazo from the race for apparently taking a short cut in the Sept. 30 race. An electronic tracking chip indicates he skipped two checkpoints and took only 21 minutes to cover a nine-mile section -- faster than any human can run. "Not even the world record holder can go that fast," race director Mark Milde said.

Madrazo can be seen grinning ear-to-ear and pumping his arms in the air as he crossed the finish line. The photograph made front pages in Mexico. But the picture raised suspicions because he wore a wind breaker, hat and long, skintight running pants -- unusually heavy clothing for a person who had just run 26.2 miles in 60-degree weather.

"It was so obvious to me: if you look at everyone else that's in the picture, everyone's wearing T-shirts and shorts, and the guy's got a jacket on and a hat or whatever," said New York-based marathon photographer Victor Sailer, who alerted race organizers to the possible fraud. "I looked at it and was like, wait a second."

The world record for 15 kilometers -- the distance Madrazo covered in 21 minutes -- is 41 minutes 29 seconds, by Felix Limo of Kenya.

Madrazo's office did not return phone calls from The Associated Press.


After I quit laughing I thought, Yep, that's the PRI in a nutshell. Dishonest, heavy-handed, and incompetent.

hat tip to Mrs. Angus!