A fun run organised by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has been forced to backflip on its decision to only award prize money to the first three runners across the line.
The female winner of the 5km race, Alexandra Blake, questioned race organisers on the day and was told that she was not eligible for a prize. Blake shared her thoughts on Facebook, expressing her disappointment with the situation.
“This morning I turned up to race QUT classic fun run,” she posted. “I was pretty excited as it was a well ran [sic] event last year. However, the end of the race left me pretty disappointed. In 2019 I rarely feel discriminated against as a female, especially in running. However, today I did. The place-getters in the male race all took home money, the women got nothing. The men got to cross a ribbon banner. The women did not.
“When I voiced my disgust that a university could treat women with such disrespect I was told by the race director that I could have come top three if I wanted to. Let’s face it, women are different, I cannot run as fast as men. But what women can do is uplift each other to run the best we can and produce some pretty impressive results at that. QUT Classic you should be ashamed of yourselves. To all my female running friends (and male), let’s share this and let it be known that this is not OK.”
Blake’s story prompted anger across social media, with many participants and members of the Australian running community supporting Blake and expressing their frustration at the decision.
After a number of complaints, the university reconsidered its position and posted the following message to the event Facebook page.
“Firstly, a big congratulations to all runners at this morning’s event. We’ve since received feedback from our participants regarding the structure of the cash prizes and the disadvantage to female runners. Our intention was to award prize money to the first three runners over the line, regardless of gender, on top of our usual prize categories.
“We apologise for this and given QUT’s oversight we have restructured the winnings and will now be awarding cash prizes to the top three female and male runners. Race winners will be contacted. Thanks to everyone who participated in the event and through their registration supported QUT’s learning potential fund.”
