Shoe tech advances bring sub-two hour marathon ever closer

LONDON : A century after the 1924 Paris Olympic men's marathon was won by Finn Albin Stenroos in two hours 41.22 minutes, next year's Games in the same city could feature the first official sub-two-hour time for the distance after 2023 saw more barriers smashed.

Kenya's double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge, who dipped under two hours with his unofficial Ineos challenge run in 2019, had dragged the record down to 2:01.09 in 2022.

But in October this year compatriot Kelvin Kiptum stunned the sport when the 23-year-old took over half a minute off the great man's mark to post 2:00.35 in Chicago to kick-start talk of when, rather than if, a legal sub-two would arrive.

That came two weeks after Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa astonishingly took well over two minutes off the women's record with 2:11.53 - a time that would have been the men's world record until 1967.

Talented and hard working though both champions are, the key component of their incredible times was unquestionably the latest developments in shoe technology that has made comparisons with earlier eras, even last decade, largely meaningless.

Kipchoge's performances opened the world's eyes to the condensed foam, carbon-plated super shoes Nike claimed could increase running efficiency (the amount of oxygen consumed per minute) by 4 per cent.

Soon, every major race start line was awash with the trademark dayglow Nike Vaporfly and Alphafly.

Although the sport' governing body World Athletics tried belatedly to rein things in with their stack height regulations in 2020, the genie was out of the bottle and it did not take long for other companies to close the gap.

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Assefa ran Chicago in a new Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 shoe, retailing at just under $500. It conforms to the