Record-breaking Nike shoes may be banned
The Nike shoe used by Brigid Kosgei to break the women’s marathon world record last year is likely to be banned.
The Nike shoe used by Brigid Kosgei to obliterate Britain’s Paula Radcliffe’s women’s marathon world record is likely to be banned when World Athletics introduces new rules on running shoes.
However, the governing body may declare a moratorium that protects the Kenyan’s mark of 2hr 14min 04sec, set in Chicago last October, which is 81 seconds faster than Radcliffe’s 2003 time.
Nike’s range of Vaporfly road shoes and running spikes, with the controversial use of super-thick soles that incorporate carbon plates that act like springs, have revolutionised the sport.
A prototype version propelled Eliud Kipchoge to his historic, albeit unofficial, sub-two-hour time in Vienna, also in October.
It has forced World Athletics to appoint a panel of experts to review the products, not least because of concerns expressed by some non-Nike-sponsored athletes — and rival manufacturers — about the performance advantages of footwear that does not seem to even fall within the present rules because they are not necessarily “available to all”.
The expectation is that Kipchoge’s Alphafly shoes, which boast an deep midsole that incorporates a triple carbon plate design, will be banned.
And sources said when Kosgei smashed Radcliffe’s record, she was wearing a modified version of Nike Vaporfly Next% shoes, with a slightly thicker sole, that would also be likely to exceed new limits introduced by the governing body later this year.
Nike has not responded to questions about the technology, but the situation is becoming increasingly troublesome.
Before Kosgei’s performance in Chicago, Radcliffe was the only woman to run under 2:17 for the marathon. Which means that once the new technology is banned, it could be decades before anyone can better Kosgei’s time, potentially creating a situation not dissimilar to other women’s athletics records that have stood since the 1980s when there was only limited drug testing.
That will not be lost on World Athletics and its president, Sebastian Coe. But a failure to act sooner has led to Kosgei being allowed to compete in the shoes in October, not to mention other athletes who have broken other records, and it could prove extremely problematic to even attempt to erase their efforts from history.
With Kosgei now due to race in a stellar field in the London Marathon in April, the pressure is on World Athletics to act quickly. There is a desire to introduce a new set of parameters that manufacturers cannot exceed, with shoe technology controlled in much the same way as swimming tackled the emergence of bodysuits.
The development of new spike designs is of particular concern to World Athletics.
Photographs published on the internet of a prototype Nike sprinting spike have sparked fears that the technology could enable inferior runners to break Usain Bolt’s world-record times.
It is almost certain that Nike will be told its athletes will not be able to compete in such shoes at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Times
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