In an Instagram Reel video, the former youth and sports minister said following discussions with the organisers, his status in the race had been changed to DNF (did not finish).

Syed Saddiq said he had completed three laps of the bike course as required, but that his mistake was in doing his first lap as part of the 40km specified for the Olympic race category.

He said he suspected at the time that something was amiss as he came back earlier than expected.

“I immediately flagged this with the first technical team. I was then informed that there was no problem, and continued as usual. The first technical team comprised two officers who can testify to this.

“Now, the latest data shows that I did complete three loops and crossed all the checkpoints, but the first loop at the beginning was for the Olympic race instead of the 113 (triathlon race category).

“Laps two and three had no problems, thus explaining why it wasn’t two loops at 60km but three loops at 72km,” he said.

Syed Saddiq participated in the 113 Triathlon Desaru 2024 race over the weekend, coming in third after what he said in a previous Instagram post took him a total of five hours and 44 minutes.

In that post, he also denied an accusation by a social media user that he had “completed the bike (course) with only two loops (60km)” instead of the required three loops, which is 90km.

The social media user said Syed Saddiq could not have completed the bike course in two hours and 37 minutes, as the MP had taken three hours and 31 minutes to complete the same bike course during the Ironman race in May.

Other social media users criticised his earlier response, urging him to show the data recorded on running and cycling tracking app Strava.

In response, Syed Saddiq showed his Strava app in the video, which recorded him as having completed the race in five hours and 47 minutes.

“The reason why I didn’t share this early on is because some ‘facts’ were just not accurate. For example, my Apple Watch showed that I only swam for 100m, while as the race has proven, it was 2.25km.

“At the same time, the registered running time was also much later than reported. That is why I waited for the official data for cross-referencing.

“This was an honest mistake on my part. Despite double-checking the problem during the race and notifying the technical team, I should still have been more responsible as a participant,” he said.