William John Bell had been engaged as a coach to marathon runners as part of Mr de Castella's Indigenous Marathon Project, which trained indigenous athletes to run in the New York marathon, from April 2009 to November 2010. The project was covered by a film crew creating a documentary Running to America.

Mr Bell brought the action against the marathon champion claiming he was discriminated against on the basis of race, profession and political conviction. In submissions to the tribunal, Mr Bell alleged he was sacked because he was non-indigenous and believed that the Aboriginal flag should be on display whenever indigenous athletes were involved.

But the tribunal found Mr Bell's purpose was to ''harass, annoy and aggravate the respondent Rob de Castella,'' and that the allegations of discrimination were made without reasonable grounds.

''The tribunal finds that the application was vexatious and, to the knowledge of the applicant, without a reasonable chance of success,'' it said.

Mr Bell was ordered to pay 50 per cent of the cost of the initial two days of the hearing, the entire cost of the final day of hearing and the cost of the time required to deal with the voluminous email correspondence generated by the applicant arising from unreasonable delay and obstruction caused by the applicant.

''There are circumstances or matters of sufficient weight which justify a departure from the presumptive rule that each party should bear their own costs … it is reasonable that the applicant should pay those costs of the respondent's which arise from an unreasonable delay or obstruction caused by the applicant.''