Over the weekend at the Great North Run in Newcastle, U.K., British influencer and boxer Tommy Fury took the term push to the finish a little too literally.
A viral TikTok video showed the 26-year-old sprinting toward the line and shoving two other runners out of his way. Despite the move, both runners still placed ahead of Fury on chip time. Fury crossed in 1:34:35, six minutes inside his pre-race goal of 1:40.
@el_chic_boutique Tommy fury big finish at GNR 😅😅😅#fury #tommyfury #tommyrunning #fyp ♬ IM FAST AS FUCK BOI – doaflip_family
“I was hoping for one hour 40, but ended up smashing that time,” Fury wrote on social media after the race, saying he was surprised by his result in his half-marathon debut
Fury placed 2,100th overall out of a record 60,000 participants. But his finish was overshadowed by the criticism it garnered online. Many questioned why he wasn’t disqualified. “He should be disqualified for impeding these [two] athletes,” one TikTok commenter wrote. Another added: “Imagine running 21.1 km, legs heavy, finish line in sight, then getting randomly shoved aside by a charging Tommy Fury.”
This isn’t the first time Fury, who owns an 11-0 professional boxing record, has been at the centre of endurance sports controversy. Just last week, he was accused of cutting the bike course at a T100 Triathlon World Tour event in the French Riviera after his published splits showed only 48 km of the required 80 km completed.
The Professional Triathletes Organization (PTO) later explained that Fury was one of 93 competitors who were impacted by a road closure, stopping them from completing the bike course before the cut-off time.
Fury rose to fame in 2023 when he handed American YouTuber Jake Paul his first professional defeat. But if recent weeks are any indication, endurance athletes seem to be Fury’s current opponent.
