Of the thousands or tens of thousands of posts about the breaking of the 2-hour marathon record this Sunday (26) in London by Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Ethiopian 42.2km debutant Yomif Kejelcha, one of the most sensible was that of amateur runner and former Brazilian Olympic skier Lelo Apovian.
As a runner, Lelo has a personal record that a negligible fraction of Brazilians who don’t run professionally can aim for: 2h37min58sec in Berlin.
Lelo said that, in addition to the lack of experience of the winners, what impressed him most was the humidity during the race, 90%, an Amazonian level, which makes sweating and, therefore, the marathon runners’ performance difficult.
His conclusion is that “this record will be short-lived”.
The former skier did not mention the “equipment” that both wore on their feet, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 sneaker, from Adidas, which also surpassed a historic barrier, that of weight, less than 100 grams. Sawe and Kejelcha highlighted in interviews shortly after the race the lightness of the product, and the Kenyan also highlighted its “stability”.
It is difficult to calculate the impact in terms of increased sales revenue that this historic break of the 2-hour mark will mean for Adidas, but it will certainly be less important than the intangible gain that the German brand receives as a gift from the records.
After all, Nike was the one who started obsessively trying to break the brand, and did so in 2019 with the sneaker that would give rise to the VaporFly family, but in a controlled, unofficial event, with fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge running flanked by hares. He supposedly had the ideal conditions to be a “sub2”.
Seven years are an eternity, and in that time Nike changed CEOs, promoted downsizings, seemed to leave the game, but time didn’t stop, and the space was occupied not only by Adidas but also by less traditional players such as On and Under Armour.
I spend more time talking about the “hardware” than the athletes themselves, as it seems to me that the key is in the feet. If a guy like Kejelcha, a newcomer to the marathon — even though he holds the world record in the half marathon —, is capable of breaking a record sought for at least seven years, it is to be assumed that in East Africa the source is unlikely to dry up.
On the other hand, in a global market that could earn US$104 billion in 2030, according to consultancy Euromonitor, new leaps in technology are to be expected in search of (even more) lightness and responsiveness.
This Sunday, London may still have broken the record for marathon finishers, over 60 thousand; This was the expected record break of the day. With it, New Balance, the sports brand that sponsors the event, also takes its consolation prize on a morning in which Adidas had a beard, hair and mustache.
