Women's Park Run Record smashed to smithereens

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The way to beat records for men to self ID and run as a female. Straight into the record books and stand aside females whilst man in dress sets the record. Is nothing safe from men anymore?

Was a married man until just 4 years ago.

It's a very unusual situation. But I guess technically even ex criminals can run at parkrun?

He isn't an ex criminal. He's in a women's prison for murder.

Anyone up for a bit of Parkrun tourism on Saturday?

A female takeover of that course? Just an idea...

I think that in Sports (and all walks of life maybe) we should just add a "Trans" category & they can all compete (or go to the loo) together.

Of course, all the second rate male "sportsmen" and all the fetishists wouldn't like that as they'd all be in the same place with not a Woman in sight!!!

But tough titty.....

this isn’t the park run case. It’s a different one mentioned in the article.

They are not an ex criminal. They are currently serving 19 years in jail for attempting (by repeated stabbing) to murder an athletics official who questioned if they should be running in a women’s race. Yet we are supposed to accept that men being in our spaces and sports is completely reasonable. The double think in this case is staggering.

I saw a comedian talk about this a while ago, Monroe Martin. The bit is still up on Instagram. He basically said it was ‘a bit like winning the Tour de France with an e-bike. Technically it’s a bike but what’s the motor doing there.’

What I loved was that someone in the comments had commented that it ‘doesn’t come off like the joke of an ally’ and that Martin should take a lead from James Acaster for how to tell trans positive jokes. Martin responded on the comment and said ‘you found a comedian who tells jokes you like, go watch their jokes.’

At this rate there will be no women's records left anymore. They'll all be held by men.

Women ARE being erased. This isn't hyperbole. It's an unassailable fact.

YANBU

Parkrun has been going for nearly 20 years, with over 3 million participants globally, nearly 350,000 people run, each week in over 20 countries and more than 2,000 locations. The results, age gradient and position as well as finishing time has always been an important part of Parkrun.

The answer is not to do away with the male / female categories but to apply the guidance of the UK National Sporting Bodies issues in Sept 2021 which concluded that existing guidance on self identifying into the female category to be out dated and no longer valid and that self identifying into the female category is not compatible with competitive fairness.

Inclusion does not trump fairness. We need to see this rolled out across all sports at all levels. What is sport without fairness?

Contact Parkrun and let them know your thoughts.

I read a good biography of Lance Armstrong recently (not into cycling, but enjoy sports journalism). His psychology is fascinating; he is still adamant he didn't cheat, because as everyone was doing it he didn't gain an unfair advantage so it's not really cheating.

Early in his career, he was a star attraction at a charity cycling event and was riding along in a mock race with a group of kiddies on tricycles and starter bikes with stabilisers. All good fun. However, approaching the finishing line he stopped dawdling with the kids and pushed on in order to cross the line first (ie a professional adult didn't let the children win).

I think of this self-absorbed lack of empathy when I read about males in women's races, and their attitude to cheating.

I think we all know that this record wasn't set by a real woman and shouldn't be in any record book.

The solution is adding transgender categories, and trans people doing the decent thing and running in those instead of as the opposite sex.

@Beowulfa Have you watched the long documentary about him? He is utterly devoid of any empathy and I felt like he bordered on sociopathic. Nothing screamed male entitlement like he did.

Just like the militant TRA's really and those who steal women's spaces.

Thanks for the advice, I'll look elsewhere for the F1 result shall I, maybe the Grauniad will have a more acceptable result!
It's amazing how critical MNers are re DM yet seem to be very au fait with the content!

No, we need to assess why more respectable publications aren't covering this issue adequately.

If you really, really don't want transwomen to have to confront the reality of sex, then we can do what Sharron Davies suggests: a Female category for all female born people who are not taking any performance enhancing drugs, and an Open category for everyone else.

Obviously transmen who want to compete will need to acknowledge they are female born this way, but nobody really gives a crap about them. Can't imagine why.

Well they could still be separated by their ‘gender identity.’ So there could be sporting events for men, for women, for men who identify as women, and for women who identify as men. That way everyone is competing somewhere they feel comfortable and are tested alongside similar athletes.

A huge faff (no idea how you'd regulate for the effects of any hormones being taken), and everyone knows there are only two categories really, but ok. As long as there's a protected category for female bodied people, no drugs/hormones, that's fine.

I'm so, so offended at the idea that a woman is just a man at artificially reduced capacity. I can't believe it's not considered more offensive. A black person is not a white person with a ton of fake tan.

Well, generally and professional sports, I think this is totally not on.

BUT, was this person setting out to be the best? Or could it just be that she, after her transition, still loved running and wanted to continue parkrun. In that situation it wouldn't be that weird - and it wouldn't be wrong imo - to allocate her identifying gender and run as she would. So for me, in this case, it depends a little on the intent.

It is a huge faff but I suppose it would satisfy every side. Trans people could no longer complain and protest that their rights are being violated - they have a category, which is ‘male born people who identify as/want to be treated as women.’ I see it as literally beating them at their own pedantic game.

Yes it’s very offensive. I slightly worry for my youngest child, she is getting really into martial arts now and wants to start competing like her brother does. However when she reaches his age (teen) the categories are split so boys and girls compete separately. I wonder what things will be like when she’s that age.

Why do they publish results under female and male then?

To the poster who asked about aowalc it just means parkrun is All one word, all lower case.

I had a snoop on Siam’s Facebook. It’s open and made me feel quite sad. Sian was Simon, married to Kimberley and has 2 little children. Running for a while now transitioned.

I don’t think Sian transitioned to cheat as such but ended up transitioning then being able to run at the same speed meant they could take the women’s records.

feels horribly unfair though. I’ve done hundreds of parkruns and I think this really hurts.

there was a new trustee (David Dinsmore) who was ousted recently as he was previous editor of the Sun and had very questionable integrity. He apparently resigned but basically many parkrunners called it out and said it was never acceptable to have him on board.

you would think HQ would be a bit more awake to the community and their feelings now.

what a shitshow.

Who cares? Sports should be open and fair at every level.

yeah it's not really that.

It's more just that (1) she wanted to do park run - which she is allwoed to do and (2) she wanted to use the gender she identifies as - which she is allowed to do.

If she didn't do it to smash the record then all the backlash feels a little unfair. Park run isn't exactly a professional sport!

Apparently though because the story is covered by the DN then it doesn't matter, move on nothing to be seen. Some people are only prepared to hear the story if covered by the Guardian or BBC so will wait until no more women's records left before they catch up. 🙄

DM even!