London Marathon celeb scandals – from Love Islander accused of cheating to Katie Price disaster and ‘slowest ever’ star
The UK’s biggest annual endurance race is back and set to take centre stage this weekend, attracting thousands of runners each year.
The London Marathon has had its fair share of celebrity participants, and with them have come some of the biggest scandals of the race.
9
Among the famous faces taking part this year are singer Jason Byrd, endurance athlete Russ Cook and actress Ruth Wilson.
Starting at Blackheath and ending at The Mall, the 26.2 mile route will take runners past some of the capital's most famous landmarks, including Big Ben, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace.
This year's race has seen a record number of entrants and the ballot for 2025 is already open.
From a Love Island star accused of cheating to Katie Price’s running disaster, we take a look at some of the race’s biggest celebrity shocks.
9
9
In 2018, Katie Price was forced to pull out of the London Marathon after suffering a knee injury.
The former glamour model was believed to have stopped running a quarter of the way into the 42km course.
The TV personality sported a lung costume in honour of the British Lung Foundation after her mother was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis just the year before.
A policeman was later seen wearing the costume as he cycled to the finish line for Katie.
The mother-of-five expected to finish the race in under eight hours but did not even make it halfway.
She told The Daily Mirror before the race: “If I collapse, I better f***ing get up again.
"But even if I end up having to crawl, I will get over that line.”
Katie hit back at criticism after not completing the marathon, telling fans on Instagram: "I did train for the run, tried my best in a heavy outfit and if my mummy is proud that’s what matters to me ❤."
In 2009, Katie suffered a heartbreaking miscarriage on the London Marathon course but amazingly finished the race in just a little over seven hours along-side ex-husband Peter Andre.
9
9
In 2019, at the centre of controversy was Love Island contestant Georgia Harrison, who came under fire for running the London Marathon in a remarkable four hours.
The reality star revealed that she hadn’t done much training and had been going out partying in the weeks leading up to the race.
The now 29-year-old ran the 26.2 mile London Marathon in an incredible time, but users online were not convinced.
The TV star was accused of cheating during the race.
One person commented: “I think she cheated! If you look up her official marathon photos online, her number (57446) is being worn by a man called Arjun earlier on in the race, and the only photos of her are in the last mile or so!”
“Pure lies. She either cheated or she's exaggerating her "lack of training" and "coming in at 3am". You don't just get up and run a marathon. Not in 4hrs anyway” another added.
Georgia took to Tik Tok at the time to put the cheating rumours to bed.
She said: “When the photography pictures came out, some guy called Arjun had my number on, so the press and my fans assumed I had basically swapped numbers with this Arjun.
“I ran that marathon and I’ve got the blisters, scars to prove it.”
9
Comedian Romesh Ranganathan’s previously revealed how it took him a whopping six and a half hours to finish the marathon - the average time is around four hours.
He blamed "drinking too much water" on his lengthy run.
Speaking to Runners World, the TV star revealed: "Last year, I did a training run in Ipswich, where I was on tour at the time.
"I didn’t know anything about fuelling – I’d only ever run 10K, and you can run 10K on nothing, which is what I was doing.
"But on this 16km run in Ipswich, I hit the wall. I was in the middle of nowhere, on the outskirts of Ipswich and I couldn’t run any further. I had to get an Uber back to the hotel!
"It gave me the fear so badly that, by the time I did the London Marathon, I was so scared of hitting the wall again that I ran really within myself.
"I was fuelling as much as I could, drinking at every water station. I did it in six and a half hours, which is pretty much walking pace.
"But in my defence, I was doing lots of selfies and didn’t realise how long the cues for the toilets were.
It hasn't put him off running this year though.
"This year, I’m aiming for sub-five, which feels within the realms of possibility," he told the magazine.
9
The 2018 London Marathon became a hot topic when Sir Mo Farah lost his cool with race officials after a drink bottle row.
Mo was competing in his second London marathon after finishing eighth four years before.
The Olympic gold medallist was approaching one of the water stations when he struggled to locate his drink bottle.
The track star became outraged when he asked officials to get him a new drink, and they did not help, seeming to be more concerned about taking photos of the athlete.
Disaster struck once again when Mo dropped his water bottle at another bottle station.
In a post-race interview at the time, the now 41-year-old explained the fiasco, he said: "The drink station was confusing, I was table four, I went to pick it up.
"The staff were helpful at the end but at the beginning they were trying to take a picture rather than giving me the drink.”
9
The Only Way is Essex star James Argent’s sister was accused of cheating in the London Marathon in 2016.
Natasha Argent was investigated by officials after she finished the 26.2 mile race in under four hours, missing 11 of the 24 checkpoints along the course.
Event organisers confirmed that the then 26-year-old had to return her marathon medal and would be consequently banned from participating in any future London Marathon events.
She hit back at accusations that she purposefully cheated, insisting that she had a panic attack and that is why she got lost on the route.
Natasha, who appeared on dating show Take Me Out, left the course after suffering the attack and rejoined at the final leg claiming that she was “genuinely lost”.
She further revealed that race officials told her there was no way she could go back after she became lost.
Natasha told OK! Magazine at the time: “People were cheering me on and I felt like I didn't deserve the cheers. It was just awful.
“I'm really sorry if I have hurt anyone”, she continued.
9
thesun
