London Marathon man, 75, ran 12 miles in 43 minutes

He has run more than 400 marathons all over the world, raising thousands of pounds for charity. And at 75, Alan Morton is apparently still going strong, coming seventh in the over-70 age group at the London Marathon in April.

But last night, the veteran runner was at the centre of extraordinary allegations amid suspicions that he may have taken a short cut during the second half of the race.

According to the electronic timing chip worn by all runners, Mr Morton finished in an impressive 4 hours 16 minutes and 23 seconds. But members of his running club began to suspect something was amiss after examining his split times over the course of 26 miles and 385 yards, or 42.195km.



He passed the 20km mark in just under 3 hours 9 minutes, which put him on schedule to finish in around six and a half hours. However, no more chip times were recorded for him until the 40km mark, which he passed in 3 hours 52 minutes and 30 seconds.

That means he would have had to cover the second 20km (12 and a half miles) in a staggering 43 minutes, far quicker than Haile Gebrselassie's pace when he set the marathon world record of 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds in Berlin last year.

If he had run the whole course at this speed, Mr Morton would have won outright, beating the world's top runners by more than half an hour. The absurd times led fellow members of Bro Dysynni Athletics Club in North Wales to invite him to explain. Instead, he handed in his resignation, saying he was 'sick of the whole issue'.