Pineapple marathon man under scrutiny for cutting course at Sevilla Marathon

Moshe Lederfien, a 70-year-old Israeli marathoner who has become famous for balancing a pineapple on his head during marathons, has received scrutiny from Spanish citizens after he did not run the full course at the 2024 Zurich Marathon de Sevilla on Sunday.

Lederfien crossed the finish line at the Zurich Marathon de Sevilla in three hours, 21 minutes, and 48 seconds, which would have been a new Israeli masters M70+ age group record. Later, it came out that he only ran the second half of the race, starting at the 25 km mark. The race did not disqualify his result, but took him off the leaderboard for age-group prize purposes. Lederfien would have finished second in the M70-74 age category.

Several media outlets in Spain, like MARCA, reported on his jaw-dropping three-hour result while balancing a pineapple, and have been called out by Spanish citizens. “Running a half marathon with a pineapple in 3:21 is fine, especially if it’s to raise awareness. But it’s not 42.195 km at 4:46 pace,” one runner wrote on X. “The guy started running at 25 km… It’s impossible at that speed to make that time (which for half of people is incredible, for a 70-year-old person even more, and if he also has a pineapple on his head, infinitely more),” wrote another.

Lederfien has not come out and said whether he intended to only run half the course; but to activate the timing chip, he would have had to cross the start line and then exit the course. Lederfien has previously participated in other marathons in Berlin, Valencia and New York; and in all of them, he has run with a pineapple on his head. “Fruit is one of the most important foods for people, and I want to bring that good to everyone,” Lederfien indicated in an interview with Time News. “The objective is to raise awareness about the health benefits of eating fruit and the importance of caring for the environment.”

The pineapple marathon man also has an Instagram account with 4,500 followers, where he documents all of his races.

posted Sunday February 25th
by Running Magazine