Adidas v Nike fierce battle: what shoes the elite marathoners wore in the first big race of the year

Adidas v Nike fierce battle: what shoes the elite marathoners wore in the first big race of the year

The first big marathon of the season took place in Tokyo over the weekend. As usual, in the men's category, Kenyan athletes dominated the race, taking the first three places: 1. Benson Kipruto – 2:02.16, 2. Timothy Kiplagat -2:02.55, 3. Vincent Ngetich – 2:04.18.

Last year in Berlin, Tigst Assefa set the world record with the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1

For girls, 1st place went to Sutume Asefa Kebede (Ethiopia) with a time of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 55 seconds. The podium was completed by Rosemary Wanjiru (Kenya, 2 hours, 16 minutes and 14 seconds) and Amane Beriso Shankule (Ethiopia, 2 hours, 16 minutes and 18 seconds).

As usual, a mediatized aspect after a race of this magnitude was related to the battle of the brands that shoe the elite runners. In Tokyo, the score was 3-2 for Adidas over Nike. Here's how the podium looked in men's and women's:

*1. Kipruto (model Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1), 2. Kiplagat (Nike Alphafly Next% 3), 3. Ngetich (ASICS Metaspeed Sky Paris)

*1. Kebede (Nike Vaporfly Next% 2), 2. Wanjiru (Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3), 3. Shankule (Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1)

Adrian Stoica

Adrian Stoica

Adrian is the founder and the visionary behind Cluj Napoca, a media platform committed to capturing and sharing the vibrant stories of Cluj-Napoca and Romania with an international audience. A graduate in international journalism from the University of Bucharest and holder of a Master’s in Cultural Studies from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Adrian has a robust educational background that equips him to understand and analyze the complexities of his native region's culture and history.