NEW YORK (Reuters) – A shoe debate is raging ahead of Sunday\u2019s New York City Marathon after high-tech sneakers played starring roles in two of the biggest distance-running achievements this year. <\/p>\n
Eliud Kipchoge\u2019s sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna and Brigid Kosgei\u2019s record-breaking run at the Chicago Marathon last month brought the Nike Vaporfly shoes into focus, sparking heated debate over whether the hyper-advanced footwear gave an unfair advantage. <\/p>\n
Shalane Flanagan, who won in New York in 2017, told Reuters the running community should \u201calways question what\u2019s going on\u201d in her sport but said the debate should not overshadow individual performances. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could give the pair of shoes to Joe Shmo off the street \u2013 they can\u2019t go run what Eliud ran or Brigid Kosgei,\u201d said Flanagan, a Nike athlete who recently retired from competition and was consulted in the creation of the shoe. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up to other companies now to match the innovation or the IAAF needs to come in and say \u2018we\u2019re not having this innovation as part of our sport\u2019,\u201d the American added. <\/p>\n
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) established a working group months before Kipchoge\u2019s historic run to establish whether the shoes were fair and expects the group to report back before the end of the year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is striking a balance between spurring development of \u2018new technologies\u2019 while preserving \u2018the fundamental characteristics of the sport\u2019,\u201d the association said in a statement. <\/p>\n
IAAF rules state \u201cshoes must not be constructed so as to give athletes any unfair assistance or advantage\u201d and that \u201cany type of shoe used must be reasonably available to all\u201d. <\/p>\n
Retired marathoner Meb Keflezighi, who won the New York City Marathon 10 years ago, told Reuters credit still belonged to the athletes despite high-tech advances. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have the lungs, you\u2019ve got to have put in the work and all that,\u201d the Olympic silver medalist said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a lot of aid at the end I\u2019m pretty sure it will make a difference.\u201d <\/p>\n
Athletics is not the only sport to consider reining in the use of advanced technology in competition. In 2010, high-tech suits were banned from swimming amid a glut of broken records. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s super frustrating that someone has an amazing race and we go \u2018what are they wearing?\u2019 It\u2019s not just the athlete anymore,\u201d 2018 Boston Marathon winner Des Linden told reporters in New York. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to become \u2013 well, it is \u2014 an arms race and it should be a foot race,\u201d said Linden. \u201cWe should find out who (is) the best athlete and who can cover 26.2 (miles) better than the other person, not who has the newest, greatest technology.\u201d <\/p>\n
Reporting By Amy Tennery; editing by Clare Fallon<\/p>\n
Article source: http:\/\/feeds.reuters.com\/~r\/Reuters\/domesticNews\/~3\/VPs4yIoVaTs\/record-busting-shoes-loom-large-in-marathon-debate-idUSKBN1XB52Y<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A shoe debate is raging ahead of Sunday\u2019s New York City Marathon after high-tech sneakers played starring roles in two of the biggest distance-running achievements this year. Eliud Kipchoge\u2019s sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna and Brigid Kosgei\u2019s record-breaking run at the Chicago Marathon last month brought the Nike Vaporfly shoes into focus, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-192127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192127\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}