COULD LAURA MUIR’S RUNNING SHOES SCUPPER RECORD?
LAURA MUIR’S record mile run in Birmingham last Saturday is under scrutiny, with a leading sportswear manufacturer seeking clarification about whether her shoes comply with athletics rules.
The Scot smashed Kirsty Wade’s 31-year-old British indoor record by more than five seconds wearing shoes understood to be Nike prototypes.
Muir ran 4min 18.75sec, the third fastest indoor mile in history. She covered the first 1,500 metres in 4min 1.83sec — faster than her British indoor record at the distance.
The 25-year-old’s shoes, which appear to be based on the Nike marathon design Eliud Kipchoge was wearing when he set his astonishing world record in Berlin last year, are vastly different from traditional racing spikes. They are also very different from the shoes Muir used to set her other national records. The IAAF world governing body say they will study the new shoes if they receive a complaint.
One of Nike’s biggest rivals, who asked not to be identified, told Sportsmail smail they intend to consult lawyers with h the purpose of drafting a letter to the IAAF asking for clarification.
The IAAF said yesterday there e was no evidence that the shoes do not conform to the rules, but the use e of racing spikes that are not widely ly available appears to be at odds with h their regulations.
The rules state that ‘any type of f shoe used must be reasonably y available to all in the spirit of the universality of athletics’. Further to that, it says shoes ‘must not be e constructed so as to give athletes es any unfair assistance or advantage’. e’.
Other sports have strict regulations ons on equipment. In swimming, suits must be ratified before being used in top-level -level competition. In athletics, few such rules exist beyond the thickness of soles es for certain field events.
The IAAF have confirmed that t the emergence of certain products, amid claims by Nike that their Vaporfly marathon shoe offers a ‘four per cent improvement in running economy’, led to the IAAF technical committee discussing shoe technology in their meeting earlier this month. Officials suggest it could lead to a review of the rules.
Other manufacturers will be pushing for that after spotting Muir in the spikes in her last two races. A senior industry figure said: ‘It has always been our understanding that any shoes our athletes use are available at retail.
‘That’s how we regard the “available to all” part of the rule, so if Laura is running in a prototype — and we first heard about Nike testing the shoes in Zurich last summer — that is bizarre.
‘We are talking to our lawyers to draft a letter we will send to the IAAF, seeking some clarification on this. We want to know if the marathon shoes have been tested, and if these spikes have been tested. And if in both cases the shoes Kipchoge and Muir are running in are available to all.’
The Vaporfly shoes are widely available but Muir’s new spikes are not advertised on Nike’s website. Her coach, Andy Young, told Sportsmail yesterday that any questions about her shoes need to be directed to Nike. The sportswear brand declined to comment.
UK Athletics, who are sponsored by Nike, also declined to comment. They were not, however, aware that Muir was running in prototypes and were unable to confirm if the technical delegate had checked her shoes before the race.
An IAAF statement said: ‘The IAAF has no evidence that these particular shoes do not conform to Rule 143.2. If we do receive a complaint, our process is to refer the shoes for study, and if they are proved to be non- compliant, they may be prohibited in competition.’