California Marathon Winner Disqualified For Accepting Water From His Father, Gets Called Out By Runner Up

Estaban Prado won the Orange County Marathon in California over the weekend, but was stripped of his title thanks to his father and some water.

The 24-year-old finished the race in 2:24:54, which is an absurd pace of just over 5:30 per mile, but was later disqualified from the competition after it was discovered that he accepted water from his father who rode along the 26.2-mile course on a bike.

Runners can, of course, accept water during races, but race organizers deemed Prado "received unauthorized assistance."

"We were forced to disqualify a participant after it was confirmed they received unauthorized assistance from an individual on a bicycle, in violation of USA Track and Field rules and our race regulations," race director Gary Kutscher said in a statement, via USA Today. 

"We take these rules seriously to ensure fairness and the integrity of our event for all competitors."

The Orange County Marathon winner was disqualified after accepting water from his father during the race. Mandatory Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

Prado told NBC Los Angeles that he was unaware of the violation while making the claim that since he was leading the race, volunteers weren't ready for him at their stations to hand him any H2O.

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"Because I was first place, a lot of the volunteers were just like scrambling," he told the outlet. "By the time I got there, they were... grabbing the water. So a lot of the time the water stations, they really had nothing for me."

Kutscher disputed Prado's claim, telling the Sacramento Bee that there is video evidence showing him passing up water stations during the race.

"We have videos showing him passing water stations and not taking the Gatorade or water but receiving it in a bottle from a guy on a bicycle," Kutscher said.

The marathon's website laid out details of having seven hydration stations during the first half of the race and another eight on the back-half of the race.

After Prado was DQ'd, Jason Yang was crowned the winner of the OC marathon after completing the race in 2:25:11.

Yang didn't hold back with his criticisms of Prado, either.

"There’s a reason personal bike support is not allowed in ANY marathon race if you’re competing for a medal and/or prize money," he wrote in a caption on Instagram. "It’s quite absurd Esteban Prado isn’t apologizing to everyone that competed and still seems to think he won the race fair and square. I think the race director made the right decision."