Boston winner’s overdue pay day

Deba paid $75k but not by BAA

Former Boston college quarterback Doug Guyer came through for Buzunesh Deba.

tired of waiting for the Boston Athletic Association to get back the $100,000 prize money from disqualified 2014 women’s Boston marathon winner rita Jeptoo, Guyer paid $75,000 of the $100,000 Deba has been due since being elevated from second to first place once Jeptoo failed a drug test, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Deba was named the winner in October of 2016.

Guyer, who lost his quarterback job to Doug Flutie in the 1981 season, told the Wall Street Journal it’s “a ridiculous policy” for the BAA to wait on recovering the money instead of paying the money up front.

“Just do the right thing, and then if you have to use lawyers to claw it back, knock yourself out,” Guyer said. “Just don’t put the onus on the second-place finisher.”

Deba, who lives in New York city, told the Journal, “For us, it’s a miracle. it’s lifechanging, big money. We were waiting so long.”

Guyer, a philadelphian, does not know Deba, a 36year-old Ethiopian with two children who said she intends to use the funds for her children and to try to return to the elite running ranks.

According to his Linkedin profile, Guyer is the founder and president of Wildlife Designs and managing partner of cmA media Group. He also was the founder and cEO of Brandshare, an e-commerce media networking company that was sold in 2022.

Guyer said that if the BAA cannot come up with the remaining $25,000, he is considering paying that amount himself.

A spokesperson for the BAA emailed a statement that read, “the Boston Athletic Association stands for clean sport and fair competition. Following the ruling by the court of Arbitration for Sport, the B.A.A. began pursuit of reclaiming prize money awards from rita Jeptoo.

“As the matter is still ongoing, we are unable to comment further at this time. We are in the process of attempting to recover the prize money awarded to ms. Jeptoo, so that it can be repaid to ms. Deba.

“While we believe that ms. Deba is due the prize money as she is the rightful winner of the 2014 women’s race, there arepolicies held by World Athletics and supported by World marathon majors that we, along with the other members of the organization,follow.

“the B.A.A. is still pursuing ms. Jeptoo to recover the prize money for ms. Deba, which the B.A.A. believes would be a just and fair result for her and all runners who follow the rules.”

When Guyer emailed the BAA after reading about Deba’s plight, he received a letter from the Washington, D.c.-based WilmerHale law firm representing the BAA.

Guyer told the Journal the email said recovering the money required a lot of time, which included communication with “multiple stakeholders in several jurisdictions within the United States and abroad.”