A man who ran the second half of the London Marathon faster than Mo Farah is being investigated for claims he cut out a large part of the race, it has been reported.
The Daily Mail reported the amateur runner completed the first half of the race in two hours and seven minutes and the second half in 61 minutes, quicker than the 65 minutes Farah managed.
But runners have been posting to an online forum on running website Runners World, claiming the runner may have jumped a barrier at Tower Bridge that cut off around nine miles off the race, the paper reported.
The accused runner's time for the marathon's second half was quicker than Mo Farah's
The commenters were looking at the marathon's website which charts the progress of every runner at 5km intervals. The runner had only an estimated time for 25km, 30km and 35km intervals, meaning his chip did not register at these points, the online posters said.
One forum user said: "First half seems fair enough. Second half is nothing short of a miracle.
"It is possible that he ran easy for the first half, then went all out in the second half. However, it would need a chip malfunction at 25, 30, and 35k for this to have happened.
"It would also mean that he is capable of running a half at just over 60 minute pace, which again is possible if he was a World class elite runner, but certainly not after doing a 13.1 mile warm up."
Virgin Money London Marathon told The Sun (£) that the runner’s results were under an investigation.
A spokesman told the paper: “We have anti-cheating measures during the event, and then post-event when we analyse split times from points around the course.
“Runners found to have cheated are removed from results and banned from future events.”