{"id":41620,"date":"2021-12-14T17:02:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T17:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/?p=41620"},"modified":"2021-12-14T14:52:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T14:52:31","slug":"seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books","title":{"rendered":"Seeing\u2019s not believing as shoe tech rips up the record books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. <\/strong><\/span>When World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe began his review of the year by highlighting \u201csome jaw-dropping performances\u201d he perfectly encapsulated the sport\u2019s current paradox\u2014 people are stunned by what they are seeing, but not necessarily impressed.<\/p>\n

For decades, huge world records were often greeted with a weary assumption of doping but many of today\u2019s even bigger leaps are the result of \u201cperformance-enhancing technology\u201d.<\/p>\n

The dropping of the jaw is all-too-often accompanied by the shaking of the head as a succession of astounding performances on track and road have left fans utterly discombobulated.<\/p>\n

Illustrating the issue perfectly was the men\u2019s Olympic 400metre hurdles final in Tokyo this year, widely acclaimed as one of the greatest races in history.<\/p>\n

American Kevin Young\u2019s world record of 46.78 seconds had stood for 29 years before Norway\u2019s Karsten Warholm finally nibbled eight hundredths off it in Oslo in July.<\/p>\n

In Tokyo, Warholm scorched an incredible 45.94 seconds nL8N2PA0FK, while American Rai Benjamin and Brazilian Alison do Santos were also inside Youngs\u2019 mark that had been untouchable for almost three decades.<\/p>\n

As skeptics reacted not with adulation but with questions about the seemingly obvious impact of the new carbon-plated, thick-soled spikes and the \u201cenergy-returning\u201d Tokyo track, Benjamin hit back by saying he could have done it in any shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one will do what we just did,\u201d he said. \u201cKevin Young, Edwin Moses (who broke the world record four times and won two Olympic golds in a 10 year run of 122 consecutive race wins), respect to those guys, but they cannot run what we just ran.\u201d<\/p>\n

SIMILAR STORY<\/b><\/p>\n

It was a similar story, albeit with smaller margins, in the women\u2019s event where Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad ran inside McLaughlin\u2019s pre-Games world record and almost a second faster than the mark set by Russian Yuliya Pechonkina in 2003 that stood for 16 years.<\/p>\n

Of course, times have always gotten faster and technical innovations have helped, but the leaps being seen now are, in the words of Warholm himself, \u201ctaking credibility away from our sport\u201d as he bizarrely criticised Benjamin\u2019s carbon shoes for having thicker soles than his own.<\/p>\n

One of the other highlights of the Tokyo Olympic program was Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah\u2019s unprecedented retention nL8N2PA500 of both 100m and 200m titles as also aided by carbon spikes, she edged within touching distance of the extraordinary and hugely dubious times set by the late Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988.<\/p>\n

It is a similar story on the roads, where World Athletics\u2019 2020 shoe design rules must be one of the greatest examples of closing the stable door after the horse has not only bolted but disappeared over the hills.<\/p>\n

Records continue to tumble at all levels and this year has seen almost two minutes wiped off the women\u2019s half-marathon world record, in three massive bites.<\/p>\n

Coe says it is pointless now trying to place these seemingly stupendous performances in historical context and, in the case of the two 400m hurdles races, for example, he is surely right that fans should sit back and just appreciate the stunning head-to-head showdowns on the biggest stage of all.<\/p>\n

However, perhaps the most uplifting event of the athletics year did not feature a record, or an outright winner, as Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar and Italian Gianmarco Tamberi found themselves locked together after three fails at 2.39metres in the Olympic high jump final.<\/p>\n

Barshim asked an official: \u201cCan we have two golds?\u201d and when he said \u201cyes\u201d, and both men erupted in joy, it was truly one of the great Olympic moments.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Kenya<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Kenya. When World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe began his review of the year by highlighting \u201csome jaw-dropping performances\u201d he perfectly encapsulated the sport\u2019s current paradox\u2014 people are stunned by what they are seeing, but not necessarily impressed. For decades, huge world records were often greeted with a weary assumption of doping but many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":41619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[6857,7003,544],"class_list":["post-41620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-kenya","tag-kenya"],"yoast_head":"\nSeeing\u2019s not believing as shoe tech rips up the record books - kenya<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe began his review of the year by highlighting \u201csome jaw-dropping performances\u201d h ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing\u2019s not believing as shoe tech rips up the record books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe began his review of the year by highlighting \u201csome jaw-dropping performances\u201d h ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kenya\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-14T17:02:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/12\/img-61b8af982db1c.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"667\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Seeing\u2019s not believing as shoe tech rips up the record books\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-14T17:02:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books\"},\"wordCount\":621,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/kenya\/sites\/28\/2021\/12\/img-61b8af982db1c.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Kenya\",\"Kenya\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/kenya\/all-news\/seeings-not-believing-as-shoe-tech-rips-up-the-record-books\",\"name\":\"Seeing\u2019s not believing as shoe tech rips up the record books - 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