A marathon runner has been forced to hand back the bronze medal he won during a race in Northumberland after witnesses caught him catching a bus to the finish line at the weekend.

Rob Sloan was 20 miles into the Kielder Marathon when he hopped on to the public transport service and headed towards the race's completion zone.

Sloan then hid behind a tree until other competitors came into view and rejoined the run to claim third place.

"He is the only runner in the whole of the race who actually ran the second half of the race quicker than the first half of the race," organiser and former Great British athlete Steve Cram told BBC Sport.

"We have other checks in place as well which would suggest that he has either turned into an Olympic athlete over the last eight miles, with no evidence of that beforehand, or he used some other method to get to the finish line."

The Sunderland Harriers runner later confessed that he had used a bus to help him clock a time of two hours and 51 minutes.

Steven Cairns has now been awarded the bronze medal.