These are the shoes that Kenenisa Bekele will wear for the elite London Marathon

It is heralded to be the race of the century as Ethiopia’s Kenensia Bekele and Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge square off in the elite-exclusive London Marathon on October 4. Bekele ran 2:01:41 in the Berlin marathon last September, losing the Kipchoge marathon world record by just two seconds. A few weeks later, Kipchoge became the first runner to finish a marathon of less than 2 hours.

However, as both men follow the line on Sunday, a lot of attention will be paid to the shoes they are racing in. Kipchoge wears a Kenyan edition of the Nike Alphafly Next%, a sneaker that has been surrounded by a lot of controversy. . Kipchoge used a prototype of the Alphafly for his INEOS 1:59 race against the clock in Vienna last year.

At the London Marathon elite men’s race press conference, Bekele revealed that he had decided not to run in the Alphafly, instead opting for the Vaporfly Next%, the same shoe he wore when he nearly broke the world record in Berlin. last october.

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‘I’ll race in the Vaporfly [Next%] not the Alphafly, because with Alphafly I have some problems and I need a little more time to adapt. Right now I’m wearing the oldest shoe, ” Bekele said.

When asked about the controversy surrounding the Alphaflies and whether he thought they agreed with ‘the spirit of sport’, Kipchoge replied: ‘We live in the 21st century. First, we must accept change. Second, development goes hand in hand with technology. We are now holding a virtual press conference, isn’t that technology? We have to accept technology in our heart, keep going, we want development in this world. ‘

What are the main differences between Vaporfly Next% and Alphafly Next%?

• Both shoes have a full-length carbon fiber plate to prevent energy loss when the foot hits the ground.
• Both shoes use the same Nike ZoomX foam.
• The Alphafly Next% has the addition of two ‘Zoom Air’ units, designed to return more energy than ZoomX foam. Tony Bignell, Nike’s vice president of footwear innovation, said of the air pods: “ If you look at the general foams, they return 60-70% of your energy, Zoom X foam returns approximately 80% of the energy. and it returns Zoom Air around 90%, so we just took something that gives you 80% and replaced it with something that gives you 90%. So it’s just making the system more efficient, more effective. ‘
• The Alphafly Next% upper is made from AtomKnit, a lighter flyknit fabric. The Vaporfly Next% uses a woven mesh upper.
• The stack height of the Alphafly Next% is higher, reaching 39 mm, the Vaporfly Next% is 36 mm.

With two of the best marathoners in history wearing two of the fastest running shoes, the 19.7 laps of St James’s Park looks like a great race.

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