“We are now increasingly closer to the two-hour wall. On Sunday the psychological threshold of two hours collapsed. Before there was a minute and a half, today we are very close. The athletes will put this goal in their heads and the head does a lot. You have to set the bar high if you want to jump high, otherwise you won’t be able to do it.” Thus Gelindo Bordin, former marathon runner and first Italian to win the Olympic marathon at the 1988 Seoul Games, guest of Tempi Supplementari on Rai Radio 1 Sport, on the world record (2h00’35”) set in Chicago by the Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum, improving the previous one record of 34 seconds.
“It’s a very important time, also due to the evolution of times. More or less every twenty years you improve five-six minutes in a marathon. The faster you go, the more difficult it becomes to improve the time. Kiptum has made enormous progression, he is a boy who has little experience over the distance, he certainly has great margins for improvement when he becomes familiar with the 42 km. He is a young boy, a talent over the distance, in my opinion we have a great champion in front of us. If after just three marathons ago such a time, it makes us think that in the future he could become the new number one in the distance.”
What makes the difference in this physiological reduction of times? “First of all, the evolution of man is part of life. Then the materials and technologies adopted for footwear certainly give something to the athlete. Quantifying it becomes complex, because the effect of these shoes with carbon, with new special materials in midsoles, it can be more or less large, it also depends on the athlete’s attitude. Nutrition and greater knowledge of the distance also help to refine the details. In the marathon, a small improvement can make a big difference”.
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2023-10-09 20:04:21
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