Fitness influencer apologises after cheating 'personal best' by hitching ride at Berlin Marathon

Fitness influencers seem to have a knack for finishing their races by any means necessary but the actions of one runner during the Berlin Marathon have come in for a lot of criticism.

After Joanna Wietrzyk suffered faecal incontinence while competing in a recent Hyrox race, she faced criticism for keeping going and finishing first, which saw some of her brand deals disappear overnight.

And now Abeeeer, a fitness influencer with more than 500,000 followers across social media, has suffered the same fate after her decision to continue her race, although she wasn't on foot at the time.

Following the race, she posted a blog to confirm that her recent Berlin Marathon was a 'personal best' time, which many realised might have occurred due to some assistance from a bike, as she was spotted sat on a bike during the race.

Harry Styles needed no such assistance during his performance in the same race last year, with people noticing that the popular singer was competing despite the bizarre fake name he uses to avoid attention.

Her race timings also alluded to a little bit of cheating, as she recorded her fastest 5k split between the 35k and 40k mark, completing it around five minutes quicker than her average, right when you'd probably expect her to be feeling the most tired, and this aligned with when she was spotted on the bike.

Abeeeer has since apologised for her actions and suggested that she was 'feeling unwell' but that wasn't an excuse for her actions, which were called out by a number of Chinese publications.

While we've all been tempted to give up a run half way through or cut a gym session short, most of us don't have half a million social media followers and brand partnerships who support us because of our dedication to fitness.

On Sunday, the Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit (OMTIU) posted an apology from one of Abeeeer’s sponsors, the sports brand Brooks China, which said it was aware of the collaborator’s training plans and goals for the marathon and had given her equipment for the race.

Admitting the 'oversight', the OMTIU said: "After the race, although we verified the finishing results and related text, images, and video materials they provided, we didn’t conduct a thorough and detailed review of the entire participation process, especially information such as segment data."

Brooks confirmed that their professional relationship had been terminated and that it would never work with the influencer again.

Although OMTIU is usually on it if someone posts a misleading time thanks to some Strava data rather than the official times from the race, they somehow missed one of the competitors literally jumping on a bike instead of running.

Maybe Abeeer should try her hand at triathlons in the future.