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"Courts should be wary of concluding that expert adjudicators have fundamentally misunderstood how to go about their allotted tasks," he said.

Robins, who acts as adjudicator, declared in advance that mutual BBC colleagues did not count.

The UK government said the adjudicator had been effective and its performance was regularly reviewed.

The adjudicators cancelled these penalties, but the AA believe this is just "the tip of the iceberg".

Although electronic chip timers record runners' completed laps, the unfinished final loop is measured - to three decimal places - by a race adjudicator with a wheel straight from a 1990s PE lesson.