officially disqualified late on Tuesday after admitting taking a lift during the race.

Sylvester Jean-Pierre, who finished fifth, six places above the position orginally awarded to Martin, backed the Dandy Town footballer's case yesterday, saying that he made it clear to officials at the end that he had already been disqualified for riding part of the race on a truck.

Jean-Pierre, who finished the 13.25-mile race in a time of 1:18.25, said: "I was at the finishing line and Kris Martin made it clear to officials that he was disqualified and was running unofficially. I don't know how they did what they did.

"I feel it was very unfortunate for him. Something like that would rest on your mind. I had people calling me, saying `did you see that write-up in the paper?'.

"I was standing on the finishing line and he definitely did not have a number on his front.'' The incident came to light when other runners competing in Monday's race called the Royal Gazette to query Martin's placement in the results. One, who finished a number of positions behind Martin, said he had seen him break down with cramps after three miles only to find him on his shoulder again along Harbour Road.

He said Martin had told him he had got a lift and was running unofficially.

Martin, for his part, was shocked to get a call from race organisers on Tuesday as they investigated the complaints.

He could not understand the fuss, saying: "It wasn't my fault and I didn't lie to anyone.

"I told them I had been disqualified.'' Race director Richard Tucker said Martin had been very apologetic about the confusion caused.

And Tucker later admitted: "There must have been a slip-up somewhere. There must have been some sort of error in the chute area.''