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Seven world records of five athletes from four different continents in the space of only eight days.
The reappearance of athletics after the Olympic summer was spectacular, culminating on Sunday: a world record in male half-marathon by Jacob Kiplim in Uganda 56min 42sec which broke the best previous by 48 seconds.
It was the greatest improvement in the world’s half-marathon records and, with Kiplimo making its 26.2 miles beginnings in London on April 27, a first official two-hour marathon seems to be achievable. Elsewhere during the weekend, Toshikazu Yamanishi from Japan lowered the 20 km walking record to 1h 16min 10 seconds, while the American Olympic medalist Grant Fisher made the world record from 5,000 meters to 12 minutes . Fisher had also established a world record of 7 minutes 22.91 seconds in the Millrose meeting in New York the previous week when Yared Nuguse lowered the Mile record at 3 minutes 46.63 seconds. This Mile record, however, would only last five days, the Norwegian Jakob Ingabrtsen reaching 3 minutes 45.14 second Thursday evening while beating his own brand 1500m on the way in 3 minutes 29.63 seconds.
Keely Hodgkinson was also convinced that the 800m women’s world record would have decreased on Saturday if it had not been for a tear in the hamstrings only 72 hours earlier. So, what are some of the factors behind this overabundance of world records and will they continue?
Super shoe revolution
A simple glance at the list of world records of athletics underlines one of the greatest factors of all this. From the road to the mile to the top of the men’s side, and at the 1500m and more among women, each world record has been set since the emergence of what is now known as “Super Shoes”. The first prototypes were observed at the 2016 Olympic Marathon in Rio de Janeiro, when the Nike runners dominated the male podium. The first version of the mass market was then the Vaporfly, for which the tests showed a 4% increase in efficiency. A arms race quickly followed, both on the road and with track spikes, to produce ever lighter and more reactive shoes. Although the feeling of athletics is that the big seismic change has already occurred, there are new models each year and each shoe company now tries to better personalize your shoes in the style of specific athlete. The weight of the shoe is also a continuous objective. The £ 450 Adidas Pro Evo 1, for example, weighs only 138 grams.
Most super shoes have a kind of curved plate or stems inserted in the moss intermediate sole (generally carbon) to maintain their shape and promote optimal rocking movement. Most Super Shoe models also use an intermediate sole material called Pebax and, although people assume that the carbon element is crucial, most of the energy is actually optimized in this foam.
The limit of the heel on road shoes is 40 mm – and the biggest improvements have been on the road – but we also see much more reactive track shoes to the legal limit of 20 mm, with Nuguse, Fisher And Ingebrigtsen all bearing either the Nike or Victory Spike dragonfly. Kiplimo has set its half-marathon record on the road in the Nike Alphafly 3 shoe which sells for £ 289.99 and was also worn by Ruth Chepngetich and the late Kelvin Kiptum for their world records marathon.
Innovations
An area of research less publicized but just as competitive earlier in endurance concerns supply. Digestion problems have long limited what athletes can ingest before and during competition, whether in simple carbohydrates or sodium bicarbonate, a performance amplifier for the way it allows athletes to maintain their intensity during extreme effort moments.
The Swedish company Maurten designed a hydrogel a few years ago which could bypass the intestine while ingesting carbohydrates, which means that athletes can potentially absorb more fuel while doing the exercise than we thought previously.
MAUTEN then used this technology to see if the sodium bicarbonate could be delivered more efficiently after a large part of those who simply try to ingest what is essentially soda bicarbonate which needs several toilet trips.
The results of their “bicarb system” were extraordinary and, much like Nike with super shoes, other companies are now trying to develop their own versions. The vast majority of the main medium and long distance runners now use sodium bicarbonate, a product described as a “gold dust” Telegraph by a leading coach. Trevor Painter, who leads Hodgkinson and the Olympic bronze medalist from 1500m Georgia Bell, says he “could not strongly recommend Matuen Bicarb”. It is believed that sodium bicarbonate is beneficial during an intense exercise of more than a minute due to the production of hydrogen ions and lactate salt by the body.
Hydrogen ions make muscles and blood more acidic – thereby reducing efficiency – but work theory is that sodium bicarbonate helps “rinse” these hydrogen ions more quickly. There is also a belief that lactate itself is moved more quickly and can therefore be used as fuel. Sport scientists believe that the important advantages extend over 800 m distances to the marathon and beyond.
Smarter training
To understand the impact of changes in shoe technology and supply, it is also essential to look beyond any individual race towards the new training possibilities that could arise.
British runner Chris Thompson, whose distinguished career checked before and after these innovations, believes that super shoes have advanced marathon times on average of four minutes, but says that “learning to train” has become an art in itself. Although some runners report veal problems with excessive use, the general consensus is that recovery of more intense sessions is faster and therefore larger training volumes are possible.
“I come back after two days and do things that, I think, should not be possible,” said Thompson before finishing in the Top 10 of the London 2023 marathon at the age of 42. Anecdotal stories of kiptum operating up to 300 km per week soon to be distributed inside athletics and a general return to a higher philosophy of volume is obvious. However, it is not only shoes or supplies, and it is clear that the extraordinary success of the whole Ingabrtsen family – but in particular the double Olympic champion Jakob – has a big helping hand in sport.
Similar to Tadej Pogacar in cycling, they use a formation mode which emphasizes the “threshold” training closely controlled to a kind of intensity 7/10 in order to help to accumulate large amounts of kilometers without excessive fatigue. It is a general philosophy followed by Fisher and now George Mills of Great Britain, which has just broken the 3000m national record of Josh Kerr, as well as the Swedish Andreas Almgren, which recently set a European road record 10 km. A previous accent in the 1990s and 2000s towards a higher intensity, but training in lower volume is still suitable for some – in particular more than 800 m – but a greater proportion of athletes now seem to stay without injuries and reach regularly their potential.
Eilish McColgan suggests that shoe technology also contributes to more “aggressive” approaches in training, race and mentalities. “Maybe it’s a person to beat a record and think,” I can do it, “she said. “Then another person does it and another person. It’s a bit of a change of mind. »»
Any debate on human performance trends in any sport can also ignore broader anti -doping history. In athletics, where anti -doping was supervised by the independent unity of the integrity of athletics after the scandal of Russia, there have been special concerns of Kenya where, since 2015 , around 300 people have served or serves anti -doping suspensions. New threats will also inevitably continue to emerge – the Telegraph Reported last week of warnings within the scientific community of an undetectable mitochondrial transplant – but it has been encouraging to hear current athletes and coaches who have been proactively successful on the subject in recent years.
Jenny Meadows, who now leads Hodgkinson after losing major medals during her own career in Dopers, feared that she would leave a sport beyond hope when she retired in 2016. She is more optimistic today. “You have to work so hard, but clean people can gain and do things,” she said. “Seeing this allowed me not to be as bitter as I could have become.”
Ingebrigtsen, whose stellar history and progressive improvements can be traced until the age of eight, called for more tests last year and stressed the concerns that cheaters escaped detection. Ingebrigtsen has openly allowed the documentary teams to film in his life for many years and it is something that Kerr is doing more and more in 2025.
“My goal was to show a little more behind the scenes … Knowing that this sport is possible to be specific to the highest level,” said Kerr. Theirs is only a rivalry that advances performance and, with the respective records of Hicham El Guerrouj and Mile Records still standing after more than 25 years, two of the best in the book will surely also be threatened this summer.
