Runner Dodge Accepts Her Disqualification : Marathon: She says there is 'nothing she can say or do' to change the decision in San Francisco. Officials in Boston also are reviewing films.

Runner Dodge Accepts Her Disqualification : Marathon: She says there is ‘nothing she can say or do’ to change the decision in San Francisco. Officials in Boston also are reviewing films.

By BRIAN JARAMILLO

July 24, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Candy Dodge neither explained her race results nor admitted guilt Friday in her first statement since being stripped of her third-place finish among women in the San Francisco Marathon.

In an investigation prompted by complaints from other runners, Dodge, 43, of Canyon Country could not be found in race film taken at various points around the course and was disqualified Thursday, four days after the race.

“This is the first time in my life that anyone has ever questioned my integrity, and it is not a very nice thing to go through,” Dodge said in a statement released through race officials. “I would like nothing more than to be able to prove everyone wrong right here and now.

“But . . . there is nothing I can either say or do that is going to change anyone’s mind. For that reason, I have decided to accept the decision . . . to remove my name from the official race results.”

She said she would make no additional comments.

Race officials struck Dodge’s third-place time of 2 hours 46 minutes 18 seconds from the official race records. She was also denied $4,000 in prize money, $3,000 for third place and $1,000 more for being first in the women’s master’s division.

Kathy Wood of Truckee, Calif., will get the $3,000 for her third-place finish, and Janet Skaalen, 40, of Minneapolis will get the $1,000 for the masters’ victory. Laura DeWald, of Grand Rapids, Mich., who filed the protest that prompted an investigation, will get $1,000 for fourth.

Dodge will not be charged with criminal action, marathon officials said.

She has been credited with four other marathon finishes in 1993.

If evidence is found that Dodge has deliberately run less than 26.2 miles in other races, she would be summoned to a hearing by the U.S. Track and Field Assn., which could suspend her from the sport, race officials said.

Officials of the Boston Marathon, in which Dodge won $1,000, are reviewing race films to see whether Dodge’s 1993 time of 2:53:26 is legitimate.

Dodge has earned more than $3,000 at various high-profile marathons, among them the 1993 Los Angeles Marathon, where she won $1,500.

Bill Burke, Los Angeles Marathon president, was unavailable for comment.