Running barefoot could aid athletes in cross country
Joyce Chepkemoi (second right), Margaret Chelimo (left), Nespin Chepleting (right), and another athlete battle it out during the World Cross Country Tour, Memorial Agnes Tirop, 10 kilometres senior women race held at Lobo Village in Kapseret, Uasin Gishu County on February 12, 2022. Chepkemoi won the race, Chelimo came second while Chepleting finished third.
What you need to know:
- Running barefoot can even be an advantage on the muddiest of cross country courses
- One superlative athlete was Christopher “Jogoo” Kosgei, a former world cross country champion who never wore shoes, sometimes finishing the race with bleeding toes, subject of laughter or awe on the global stage
- Nike realised they had to do bidding to convince Kosgei that it made cents to wear shoes
The World Cross Country Championships course is uneven.
Sometimes muddy, bitingly cold in winter conditions or bone dry.
Shoes are, therefore, important, though not necessary for some athletes. Although probably the toughest of all athletics disciplines, cross country running is sometimes all basic.
No specialist equipment is required, and so long as a runner can find a vest and a pair of shorts, they are on a level competitive footing with anyone else in the world, even if you are barefoot.
Running barefoot can even be an advantage on the muddiest of cross country courses.
One superlative athlete was Christopher “Jogoo” Kosgei, a former world cross country champion who never wore shoes, sometimes finishing the race with bleeding toes, subject of laughter or awe on the global stage.
While debates continue on whether new generation running shoes like Nike Vaporfly4%, VaporflyNext% or Alphafly can improve performance, especially after Eliud Kipchoge breached the two-hour marathon mark (1:59.45 in Vienna 2019), shoes have never been a subject in cross country.
But they mean business, big business.
Basketball icon
Kosgei was running barefoot to glory at a time shoe manufacturers were dishing out good money for wearers of a championship-winning shoe in athletics, a source of income and Visa card to the billionaire club established by basketball icon Michael Jordan whose Air Jordan sneaker line has outsold any other known footwear in history.
Nike realised they had to do bidding to convince Kosgei that it made cents to wear shoes. Kosgei won silver at the 1993 World Cross Country Championships in the junior race barefoot.
But he earned global fame and infamy with a silver medal at the 1995 World Championships in the 3,000 metres steeplechase, and finally gold four years later in Seville, Spain, before he was reminded that he was losing endorsement money from shoe manufacturers.
Gebregziabher Gebremariam of Ethiopia, the men’s world junior champion in Dublin triumphed barefoot in 2002 while Kenya’s Veronicah Nyarui won the junior women’s gold medal in 2005, also running barefoot.
