Argent Tournament contesters win by cheating

It is part of the rules that contesters have to fight within the bounds of the arena, and the arena is REALLY BIG ENOUGH for that. But no, some AI enemies don't like that they can't get distance to me, so they leave the arena, and then when I follow them, while staying closer to the arena than they, they abort and have the audacity to claim that I need more practice. This is really most ridiculous and a crappy AI.