Ethiopian athlete smashes marathon record in new adidas shoe
Days after hailing a new running shoe from adidas as the lightest racing footwear she had ever worn, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa has broken the world record for women for the marathon.
She wore the shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, at the Berlin Marathon on September 24 and won with a time of 2:11:53, beating the previous world record by more than two minutes.
Speaking at the launch of the shoe in mid-September, Tigist Assefa said: “These are the lightest racing shoes I have ever worn and the feeling of running in them is an incredible experience, like nothing I’ve felt before. They enable me to put my full focus on the race, which is exactly what you want as an athlete. I can’t wait to lace up at the start line in these.”
The shoe features what adidas has called “a revamped geometry”, with a forefoot rocker, placed 60% of the way along the length of the shoe. The sports company said this innovation is “lab-tested to trigger forward momentum and improve running economy”.
