Sole searching: Adidas, Nike chase 21km, 10,000m world record times

There doesn’t seem to be any letting up in the fierce rivalry over the running shoe market between bitter arch-rivals Nike and Adidas.

Just days after German footwear giants Adidas unveiled their plans to decimate road running record at a special series of races dubbed “Prague Restart” to be run in Prague on Sunday, the Nike camp said their latest sensation, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, will be going for the world 10,000 metres record next month.

“Prague Restart” is the brainchild of RunCzech, an events and athlete management company based in the Czech capital and headed by Carlo Capalbo, founder of the Prague International Marathon.

They have lined up over 30 elite runners, aiming to run the fastest men’s and women’s half marathon races ever in a Prague park Saturday morning, an event they hope will restart elite athletics after the coronavirus-enforced hiatus.

In Saturday’s action, the men and women will compete in separate races with the men’s race staring at 6:20am, local time (7.30am Kenyan time).

The women’s race will start at 8:00am (9am Kenyan time), if weather permits.

According to the weatherman, conditions for tomorrow morning are likely to be 25 degrees Celsius with a humidity of 64 percent and winds estimated at 19 kilometres per hour.

This race will also be a product launching pad for RunCzech’s partner and sponsors, Adidas who will unleash their Adizero Adios Pro range.

The shoe was designed in close collaboration with elite athletes, including a galaxy of Kenyan stars.

The Adizero Adios Pro is considered a response to American manufacturer Nike’s AlphaFly, a prototype of which Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge used when making history in Vienna last October when he became the first man to run a sub two-hour marathon, covering the 42-kilometre distance in one hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds.

Now, Cheptegei, who is Kipchoge’s stable-mate at the Nijmegen (Netherlands) based NN running Team, hopes to continue from where he left in Monaco last month by targeting another track record in Valencia next month.

Just under a month after he shattered Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele’s world record in the 5,000 metres at the Monaco Diamond League meeting, running 12 minutes, 35.26 seconds, Cheptegei will hunt down another of Bekele’s track records when he lines up for the 10,000m in Valencia, Spain, on October 7.

Like Kipchoge and Cheptegei, Bekele runs under the NN Running Team banner and holds the 10,000m world record at 26:17.53 which he set 15 years ago in Brussels, Belgium.

In a statement on Thursday, NN Running team said Cheptegei will attempt at the Turia Stadium in Valencia as he aims “to capitalize on his stunning recent form.”

“I am very excited to be given the opportunity to target the 10,000m world record,” Cheptegei, who is also the world 10,000m champion, said.

“As my performance in Monaco showed, I am in outstanding form, so I would like to make the most of my current shape by attacking the 10,000m world record.

“Kenenisa’s 10,000m world record is one of the toughest in the books, but my training continues to go well and this gives me real confidence I can set another world record.

“I have many happy memories in Valencia having set the world 10km road record there last year in 10K Valencia Trinidad Alfonso, so hopefully we can once again create something truly special Valencia, were running plays such an important role,” the Ugandan added, confidently.

Valencia is 1,655 kilometres away from Prague where the Kenyan galaxy of stars will be out to bring some excitement to road running on Saturday.

They will run on a flat, oval course through the Czech capital’s Letna Park, covering 16.5 laps reminiscent of Kipchoge’s bespoke Prater Park course in Vienna where he broke the two-hour marathon barrier.

The men will be seeking to run faster than 58:30, a feat that has been beaten just twice before by current world record holder over the distance (half marathon) Geoffrey Kamworor (58:01) and his predecessor Abraham Kiptum (58:18).

The women will be chasing the women-only world record of 66:11 (one hour, six minutes and 11 seconds) set by Ethiopia’s Netsanet Gudeta Kebede at the 2018 World half Marathon Championships in Valencia.

But besides having one eye on a sub 58:30 time, the men will certainly be eyeing Kamworor’s record, out right.

“While this race is coming at what would normally be the end of the season, we hope in a way that it will be the start, a spark that gets race organisers all over the world thinking creatively about how to keep the sport alive,” Capalbo said on Wednesday.

Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba, a 59:29 half marathoner, was involved in Adidas’ research and development that brought forth the Adizero Adios Pro, and he’ll be on the start list on Saturday.

His involvement in the Adidas project makes him a proud man, and he’s not focusing on the records tomorrow, but just elated that the project has fully evolved.

“I’m part of the team that started testing the shoe and developing it with Adidas in February 2019 in a two-month camp in San Diego, California,” he reminisced.

“After many travels to Kenya, many shoes, many prototypes, we are now at the end of this process and as one of the athletes who was in the project from the beginning, I’m happy to see the project through.

“I’m happy how the product has developed over time and how much co-operation there has been between Adidas Running and Kenyan athletes.

“In terms of Saturday’s (tomorrow’s race), just being in Europe and just being in Prague, which is my second home, is a privilege and great opportunity for my team.

“I look forward to racing without putting any pressure on myself in terms of time because I don’t know where I am athletically as I’ve spent a lot of time training for the marathon and this opportunity presented itself.”

Kipchoge, also the Olympic champion and world marathon record holder (2:01:39) is also extensively involved in Nike’s shoe research and development and was a crucial player in the development for the Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% prototype that he used in Vienna.

The involvement of Kenyan athletes in product development by the world’s leading footwear giants certainly speaks volumes on the place Kenya holds on the global running space.