A Chinese fitness influencer with more than 500,000 followers posted a personal best from the Berlin Marathon. Four days later, a photo showed her sitting on the back of a bicycle near the 38 km mark. Sun Yuanyuan, who posts as Abeeeer, has since admitted it, lost her Brooks sponsorship and, according to NZ Herald, had her time disqualified.
It’s the latest case in a long history of marathon cheating, from a man who took a car through the 1904 Olympic marathon to a Mexican presidential candidate caught at the same Berlin race in 2007. Here’s what happened, how she was caught, and how races catch cheats now.
- Who: Sun Yuanyuan, known online as Abeeeer, a Chinese fitness influencer with more than 500,000 followers on Rednote (Xiaohongshu)
- Race: the 2026 Berlin Marathon, Sunday 27 September
- Official time: 4:53:46, which she posted as a personal best
- The giveaway: her fastest 5 km of the race came between 35 and 40 km, where a photo put her on a bicycle
- Fallout: she apologised on 3 October; Brooks China dropped her on 4 October; her time was disqualified
What happened in Berlin
Sun ran the Berlin Marathon on 27 September and shared the race with her followers as a personal best. On 1 October, the Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit, an Instagram account that checks runners’ claims against their chip times, posted a photo of her riding on the back of a bicycle at about the 38 km mark, alongside her official splits (Marathon Handbook).
The splits did most of the work. Her pace had been sliding, as it does for most runners in the last quarter of a marathon. Then, between 35 and 40 km, she suddenly ran her fastest 5 km of the day.
| Section | Time | Pace per km |
|---|---|---|
| 30–35 km | 36:51 | 7:23 |
| 35–40 km | 30:49 | 6:10 |
Running six minutes faster for a 5 km stretch, 35 km into a marathon, at a point where almost everyone slows down, is the kind of number that gets noticed.
Her apology, and the sponsor
Sun apologised on 3 October. “Even if I felt physically unwell on the course, that is absolutely no reason for me to break the rules,” she wrote, in Marathon Handbook’s translation. “When I shared the race publicly afterward, I deliberately concealed this fact. That was a very dishonest act.”
Brooks China ended its partnership with her the next day. “Upon learning of and verifying the relevant situation, we immediately terminated our partnership with this individual and will never co-operate with them again in the future,” the company said (NZ Herald). Brooks also admitted its own mistake: it had checked her finishing result and the photos and videos she sent, but not her split data.
Marathon cheating: the famous cases
Berlin has dealt with this before. Here are the cases that every list of marathon cheats starts with.
Fred Lorz, 1904 Olympics
At the St Louis Olympics, Fred Lorz dropped out after about nine miles (14 km), then rode in a car for the next 11 miles (18 km). When the car broke down he got out, ran to the finish, and was greeted as the winner until the truth came out (Wikipedia).
Rosie Ruiz, 1980 Boston Marathon
Rosie Ruiz crossed the line first in the women’s race at the 1980 Boston Marathon in what would have been a course record, 2:31:56. She’d only run the last half-mile or so. Spectators said they saw her jump in near Kenmore Square, she couldn’t describe parts of the course, and she didn’t look like someone who had just run a fast marathon. She was stripped of the title eight days later and Canadian Jacqueline Gareau was named the winner. It also emerged that she had ridden the subway during the 1979 New York City Marathon, the race that qualified her for Boston (Boston.com).
Roberto Madrazo, 2007 Berlin Marathon
Roberto Madrazo had finished third in Mexico’s 2006 presidential election. A year later, at 55, he finished the Berlin Marathon in 2:41:12 and won his age group. His timing chip showed he had missed two checkpoints and covered one stretch of about nine miles in 21 minutes. “Not even the world record holder can go that fast,” race director Mark Milde said, and his result was deleted (Al Jazeera).
Shenzhen Half Marathon, 2018
Traffic cameras caught runners at the 2018 Shenzhen Half Marathon cutting through bushes on a highway median to make an early U-turn. Organisers punished 258 people: 237 for cutting the course, plus 18 with fake bibs and three who had other people run for them (The Week).
Mexico City Marathon
The biggest numbers come from Mexico City. About 6,000 runners were disqualified for not completing the course in 2017, and about 11,000, roughly a third of the field, in 2023 (Wikipedia).
How races catch cheats now
Fred Lorz was caught because people saw him in the car. Modern cheats are mostly caught by data.
- Timing mats. Big-city marathons record a split every 5 km. A missed mat, or a split faster than the runner’s ability, is the first red flag. That’s how Madrazo was caught, and how Abeeeer’s 30:49 stood out.
- Race photos. Official photographers and spectators’ phones cover most of a big course. Madrazo was first spotted by a photographer who noticed he was wearing a windbreaker and tracksuit pants after almost three hours of running.
- Online investigators. Derek Murphy’s Marathon Investigation site has spent years matching finish photos, GPS watch data and splits to catch cheats, mostly people trying to fake a Boston qualifying time (BBC). Accounts like the Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit now do the same thing on Instagram.
- Followers. Posting a personal best to half a million people means half a million people can check it. That’s what undid Abeeeer.
Running a marathon yourself?
Melbourne Marathon is this Sunday, 11 October, and the GC50 Run Festival is on at Coolangatta the same weekend. Both are on our October events calendar. If you ran City2Surf, here’s what counts as a good City2Surf time.
Marathon cheating FAQ
Who is Abeeeer?
Abeeeer is the online name of Sun Yuanyuan, a Chinese fitness influencer with more than 500,000 followers on Rednote (Xiaohongshu). She was photographed riding a bicycle during the 2026 Berlin Marathon.
Was Abeeeer disqualified from the Berlin Marathon?
Yes. NZ Herald reported on 8 October that Berlin Marathon officials had disqualified her 4:53:46 finish.
Who is the most famous marathon cheat?
Rosie Ruiz, who “won” the women’s race at the 1980 Boston Marathon after joining it in the last mile. She was stripped of the title eight days later.
How do marathons catch cheaters?
Mostly with timing data. Chip mats record splits every 5 km, so a missing split or an impossible one stands out. Race photos, spectators and online investigators who compare photos with GPS data catch the rest.
Has anyone cheated at the Berlin Marathon before?
Yes. Mexican politician Roberto Madrazo’s 2:41:12 was deleted in 2007 after his chip showed he’d skipped two checkpoints, and Berlin disqualified 74 runners in 2001 (Marathon Handbook).
