Mark Andrews: We Brits hate a winner

Take the British ski-jumper Michael Edwards for example. During the 1988 winter Olympics, he adopted the sobriquet 'Eddie the Eagle', although his performances were more akin to those of a dead cat being hurled by a mildly irate chimpanzee during a bad day at the zoo. Edwards entered two races, and came last in both. The result was instant fame and fortune, and he even had a movie made about his heroic incompetence.

Compare that to the way the public reacted to Steve Davis. Truly dedicated to his game, his impeccable dedication and discipline, coolness under pressure and mind-boggling levels of concentration saw him win six snooker titles in nine years, and was ranked the best player in the world for seven solid years. So, naturally, everybody derided him for being boring.

And then we come to Joasia Zakrzewski. In February this year, the runner from Dumfries set a new world record, covering almost 256 miles in 24 hours. She ran for 48 hours, without a wink of sleep, getting by on a five-minute break once an hour.

And then, earlier this month, the former GP took third spot in the 50-mile race from Manchester to Liverpool, having completed one mile in a mind-boggling one minute 40 seconds. That is less than half the three minutes 14 seconds taken by the current world title holder Hicham El Guerrouj, and what's more Joasia did it with an injured ankle while suffering from jet lag. A truly phenomenal achievement you might think, but now the naysayers are queuing up to put the boot in just because she performed the feat using a car.

I know, I know. There aren't half some pedantic people about, aren't there?

I blame Greta Thunberg. And the Mayor of London. And whoever is behind the unfathomably complicated clean-air zone in Birmingham. If it were down to these zealots, we wouldn't be allowed to use our cars for anything. I suppose had she used one of those ghastly death-trap scooters, everyone would have been praising her for her initiative.

Anyhow, Joasia has apologised for her minor breach of the rules, and said she had made a mistake. Which sounds like the type of thing you might expect Boris Johnson to say.

“I’m an idiot and want to apologise to Mel," she said, referring to Mel Sykes, who was eventually awarded third prize following Joasia's disqualification.

"It wasn’t malicious, it was miscommunication.

"I would never purposefully cheat. I’ve given so much to the running world so I am devastated this has happened.

"And I got all the big calls right."

OK, I may have added an extra sentence to that quote.

Actually, Boris would also have insisted that he 'followed all the rules', and did not intentionally mislead the authorities as he did not believe that using a car was in breach of any guidelines.

As it happens, I do think Joasia has made a big mistake, but her real error is something she has been strangely reluctant to apologise for.

She used a car and still only managed to come third. You would have thought she could have done better than that.

But as I say, we Brits seem to hate a winner.