I’ve been robbed of my Parkrun record by a transgender woman...
Runner who finished first was living as a man just 4 years ago
A FEMALE runner who lost her Parkrun record to a trans athlete has said she feels ‘robbed’.
Deb Roberts, 51, set her record-breaking time of 20 minutes and six seconds on the 5km Parkrun course in her hometown of Porthcawl, south Wales, more than five years ago.
The record, which she had held since summer 2018, was in the female 40 to 45 age group category. But on Saturday, transgender runner Sian Longthorpe, 43, who lived as a married man just four years ago, smashed Ms Roberts’ record in a time of 18 minutes and 53 seconds.
Ms Roberts, a prison officer who was also competing in the same Parkrun event but now in the female 50 to 55 age group, said she had initially been unaware that she still held the record. She said: ‘I only realised the record had still been mine when my friend told me last night.
‘She then went on to tell me that it had been broken, by a trans athlete. I felt robbed, to be honest.
‘If my record had been beaten by a naturalborn female runner, I would have accepted that as fair and square. I am very competitive, but I would’ve thought it was fair enough because all records are there to be broken and mine is no different.
‘Except this is different because my record has been broken by someone who was not born as a woman. That does not seem fair.
‘My friends have told me I must complain to Parkrun, but I’m not sure yet whether or not I will,’ she said.
‘Parkrun is supposed to be about inclusivity, and I don’t want people thinking I’m having a moan just because I lost my record. But if this had been a club competition, where the rules are so strict you get disqualified just for wearing headphones, I would definitely be complaining now.’
‘The only other time I felt cheated like this was when I was in a race a year ago and a man had put his wife’s barcode around his wrist instead of his own and he beat me into second place – but when I complained, the officials put it right. Somehow, I don’t think that will happen this time.’ Ms Roberts, who works as a prison officer at a men’s jail in south Wales, trains five days a week, and often races to raise money for a friend who has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
Ms Longthorpe came out as transgender in 2019 and is now one of the UK’s most highprofile trans runners, having been made a brand ambassador by shoe label Asics.
In 2021 she gave an interview to the magazine Women’s Running, in which she described how she had always had feelings about her identity but had tried to bury them by getting married and having children, before the marriage broke up and she was forced to confront her ‘true feelings’.
Fiona McAnena, of pressure group Fair Play for Women, said: ‘Parkrun is fully inclusive. Everyone runs or walks together. Fast or slow, you’re still welcome.
‘But someone with a male body shouldn’t be claiming a female course record. That belongs to a female runner.’
Former British Olympian Mara Yamauchi criticised Parkrun’s self-ID gender rules earlier this week when it was revealed that two trans runners hold women’s records for the fun run – Ms Longthorpe and champion fell runner Lauren Jeska, who was jailed for attempting to murder a UK Athletics official in 2016. This prompted an outcry from activists including Ms Yamauchi, who said it signified the ‘erasure of female achievements in Parkrun’.
A spokesman for the event said it would not be ‘appropriate or practical’ to request proof of gender or ‘adjudicate the validity of a person’s gender identity’.
They added: ‘At Parkrun we aim to be as inclusive and welcoming as possible, and whilst there is and possibly always will be discussion around how we record and present people’s identities, we believe that our current solution is the most appropriate available at this time.’
‘Erasure of female achievements’