Novice runner Hayley Stewart was pleased as punch to have finished her first 10k race.

Until, that is, weeks later when she checked her time on the organisers’ website and found she had been disqualified.

She called officials and was amazed to find out that a marshal had seen her wearing headphones, which was against the rules. Amazed, because she never wears them while running because it makes her feel “isolated”.

Miss Stewart, from Gillingham, discovered she had been removed from the official results of the Whitstable 10k after running the Medway 10k two weeks ago and going online to compare her times.

Despite providing the organisers with a photo of her during the race without headphones, she has been told that her time cannot be reinstated as she missed the seven-day period to appeal the decision.

The 29-year-old, who took up running a year ago, said: “I can understand if a steward makes a mistake, but there’s pictures and videos of me without earphones. I don’t even wear headphones, they make me feel isolated.

“How am I meant to know I need to appeal when I haven’t been told I need to appeal? If I wasn’t told about it then what’s to say I’m the only one, and if they don’t tell people, then there could be people out there who have been removed and don’t know.”

Race director John Hartley said he would not discuss the matter fully as a complaint had been lodged with UK Athletics.

He said: “As we understand the rules, the competition provider is not obliged to inform competitors of their disqualification, unless a timely challenge has been made.

“Whilst empathising with this lady runner about this situation, we look forward to the deliberations of the UKA, and trust that this process will help in resolving this unfortunate disagreement.”

Around 700 runners took part in the race on Bank Holiday Monday, and Canterbury Harriers chairman Peter Yarlett said they had disqualified 10 runners for wearing headphones.

He said: “We do our best in these events and all our stewards are volunteers. We will listen to what UK Athletics finds and act from there.

“We don’t want to disqualify people, it’s contrary to the whole spirit of athletics, we want to encourage people.”

He added that other people who had their times removed had appealed within the time frame and some had been reinstated.

Medway Fit coach Gordon Watson said the club had told all 30 of its runners who took part in the race not to wear headphones.

He said: “Despite this photo evidence and yet with them not able to provide any visual evidence to the contrary, their unjust decision still stands and Hayley is left unfairly discredited, which is a complete travesty.”

In April, UK Athletics introduced a rule allowing race organisers to ban headphones if part of the race was run on an road that is not closed to traffic.

UK Athletics has not responded to requests for a comment.