World Athletics has declared that all shoes that will be used by athletes in track and field competition must be available in the retail market for atleast four months in a move meant to provide clarity to both athletes and shoes manufacturers.
While stipulating the amended rules in a presser on type of shoes that can be worn by the athletes. The governing body outlawed all prototype shoes including Eliud Kipchoge's Alphafly and noted that shoes can only be altered for artistic or medical purposes.
The ruling means that by April 30, all shoes that runners will use for for competition must have been in the market atleast four months.
"I believe these new rules strike the right balance by offering certainty to athletes and manufacturers as they prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, while addressing the concerns that have been raised about shoe technology," Sebastian Coe, World Athletics president said.
The body aims to tame shoe technology that has taken advantage of the situation by protecting the integrity of the game. More so, where the shoe technology blends into soles and spikes to give athlete performance advantage.
"It is not our job to regulate the entire sports shoe market, but it is our duty to preserve the integrity of elite competition by ensuring that the shoes worn by elite athletes in competition do not offer any unfair assistance, or advantage," Cohen noted.
As a result, any shoes that does not meet the three criterion will be suspended;
a.) The sole must be no thicker than 40mm.
b.) The shoe must not contain more than one rigid embedded plate or blade that runs either the full length or only part of the length of the shoe. The plate may be in more than one part but those parts must be located sequentially in one plane and must not overlap.
c.) For a shoe with spikes, an additional plate or other mechanism is permitted, but only for the purpose of attaching the spikes to the sole, and the sole must be no thicker than 30mm.
At the same time, an athlete can be requested to provide their shoes once they finish their competition for inspection upon suspicion of the shoe
With the Prototype Alphafly banned the controversial ZoomX Vaporfly kind of model won by Brigid Kosgei can be used as long as it has thicker sole of 40 millimetres. This is because Eliud's Prototype is believed to have thicker sole with a spring on its sole and it has not been released to public or for testing by Nike according to the New York Times.
By Kennedy O.M