Global sports brand Puma has deleted references to Aussie HYROX athlete Joanna Wietrzyk from its online store after she publicly soiled herself during a competition. Wietrzyk, 24, refused to stop competing despite streams of faeces flowing down her legs as she powered to victory during the gruelling event in Beijing on Saturday.The Melbourne athlete’s decision to push on sparked ferocious criticism of the athletic competition for allowing Wietrzyk to continue competing.It prompted HYROX co-founder Moritz Fürste to issue a personal statement pledging to implement immediate rule changes. But the blowback has also been personal for Wietryzk, who celebrated her victory with a now-deleted post saying ‘a win is a win’. The Daily Mail can reveal that one of the Melbourne athlete’s major sponsors is distancing itself from her. Puma deleted a clothing range branded ‘Joanna Wietrzyk x PUMA’ from its global online shopfront this week as social media posts collaborating with the brand were trolled with comments such as ‘Poo-ma pants’.For a time on Wednesday, Wietrzyk-branded performance shoes and outfits were still visible on Puma’s German website, but that was later purged too. HYROX athlete Joanna Wietrzyk sparked a storm of controversy after powering to victory in Beijing while covered in her faeces She’s been cruelly trolled and has been forced to disable her comments section on her personal social media accounts Wietrzyk, who is a HYROX ambassador for sports brand Puma, lent her name to a new clothing range (above) However, the Joanna Wietrzyk range is no longer available on Puma’s website, with a message telling customers that ‘products that match the selected filters were not found’Wietrzyk previously described her collaboration with Puma as one of its HYROX ambassadors as ‘a dream come true.”I’ve raced in [Puma] shoes since the beginning, she said. ‘To have them support me in my journey now is truly incredible. If I told my younger self, she’d be gobsmacked.’She recently helped promote its latest PWRMODE training collection. The clothing range, featuring brightly-coloured sports bras, shorts and tank tops, was released in July with a slick promo video of Wietrzyk training in them. ‘We don’t do comfortable,’ Puma captioned the post. ‘We do elite. If you’re going to work hard, do it in gear that can handle it!’ The metadata for Wietrzyk’s collection still shows on Google searches, but when you click on the link, an error page says: ‘Sorry, products that match the selected filters were not found.’The range is still available to shop on the website via a separate link, just no longer associated with her name. It is not clear when the deletion occurred, but Wietrzyk still lists Puma Training in her Instagram bio.The new blow comes just days after Wietrzyk was promoting Puma’s latest shoe drop alongside fellow Hyrox athlete Luke Greer on the streets of Beijing. In July, she starred in a slick promo video for Puma’s new PWRMODE range Ms Wietrzyk went on to win her event, despite the stomach-churning incident, and celebrated it with a post saying ‘a win is a win’ The promotional event occurred before the biohazard incident on Saturday.When Wietrzyk’s ambassadorship was announced in October, she said she was grateful to sign with a brand that had believed in her ‘since the very beginning.”This year feels really special. Every race will carry something deeper,’ she added on the Puma Training Instagram post.Wietrzyk has refused to comment publicly since defiantly posting ‘a win is a win’ on social media in the wake of the incident. That post has since been deleted.But her coach has now leapt to her defence and accused critics of spreading hatred.Coach Chris Bayens this week urged the public and the Hyrox community to stop the ‘hatred and personal attacks’ on the star.’The mental health of athletes is shaped far more by the community around them, and right now that community should take a hard look at itself,’ Bayens posted on Instagram.’No one is perfect, not in sport, not on social media, not in real life. What happened was extraordinary. The hatred that has followed is ugly.’ HYROX China said affected areas and race lanes were immediately closed and isolated, then thoroughly disinfected Her coach Chris Bayens has leapt to her defence, accusing critics of spreading ‘hatred’Bayens vowed to continue supporting her and stressed that no one was prepared for what happened and that the decision to continue was made on the fly. ‘Decisions were made under competition conditions by an athlete, judges and officials, all responding to a situation none of them could reasonably have prepared for,’ he said.’It is very easy to construct the perfect response once the moment has passed. Hindsight gives people time, information and distance that simply did not exist for those actually living it.’Those decisions can be reviewed and lessons can be taken from them. But judging someone’s intent, character or morality through the clarity of hindsight is neither fair nor honest.’On Tuesday, HYROX bosses apologised for allowing Wietrzyk to finish the race, and pledged immediate rule changes.Prior to the weekend’s incident, official event rules punished athletes for minor infringements such as littering on the course or clearing their nose on the floor. There were no rules relating to faecal matter. The Daily Mail has contacted Puma and Wietrzyk’s management for comment. READ MORE: Backlash against ‘toxic’ and ‘ego-driven’ HYROX grows after athlete is allowed to continue competing despite soiling herself – as critics say work-out sport has reached ‘its lowest point’