In just a week, track and field will commence at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Without doubt the biggest issue, after whether the world’s greatest track event would go ahead due to COVID-19 pandemic has been the new shoe technology.
In April last year the World Athletics introduced regulations against mechanical advantage from being obtained from footwear.
The instigate for this was complaints due to international road running records being obliterated as a result of the Nike breaking 2 technology that included more responsive foams along with strategic placement of carbon fibre plates to optimise running efficiency.
The new rules regulated against midsole thickness, carbon fibre or rigid plates placement and use of prototype shoes in competition.However, these rules protected against current models at the time. Hence, still provided a scope for manufacturers to optimise the new approach to footwear design as not just a protector of the foot and to provide grip, but also a ‘mechanical aid’.
Since then these shoe technologies have carried across to track spikes and it led our guest today Geoff Burns post-doctoral research fellow at University of Michigan to state on the world’s most prominent and influential running website LetsRun.com in a podcast interview in January this year “that 2021 on track would look like 2018 on the roads” And it is definitely looking that way with many international, national and collegiate` record books being rewritten the space of six months. Is this similar to the swimming super suits that were termed as “mechanical doping” and banned in 2010 after a string of world records were broken, and many of these marks have remained since.
As, track and field unlike swimming and cycling performances have been relatively comparative across eras since synthetic tracks. However, they may now not be so comparable.
In our first Extra Mile story, we catchup with Geoff Burns in his base in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Geoff an esteemed researcher running biomechanics, a former USA champion and representative in ultra-running (50 and 100km), and also immersed in the world of elite distance running in the home of the Very Nice Track Club under Coach Ron Warhurst.
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