What will be next? It’s going to be something.” Nike produced this shoe and we saw many records and now Adidas is producing a better one. What can you say? Everybody in the shoe companies is doing better and better. “I wish athletes just (relied) on their performances instead of technology. But my question is, ‘What will be the future?’ Sometimes I wish I could have had these shoes when I ran marathons.

“I will be the slowest in two years, number 50 or something,” Gebrselassie says, laughing. Gebrselassie’s time is now just 10th on Ethiopia’s list of fastest marathoners. His time in Berlin was 27 seconds lower than the previous mark - his mark.īut in 12-plus years, that performance has been eclipsed by 18 men, all but six of them wearing what have been dubbed as super shoes that incorporate both carbon plates to propel the runner forward and foam midsoles for cushioning. The Ethiopian was the dominant distance runner of the 1990s and early 2000s, setting 27 world records.

When Haile Gebrselassie set a world record at the 2008 Berlin Marathon, winning in two hours, three minutes and 59 seconds, it was thought to be an achievement that would last for the ages.

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