Adidas gets running lift from 2 sub-2-hour runs, 2 world records at London Marathon
Both men’s and women’s winners, Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha, wore the German brand’s new lightweight shoe, as did the men’s runner-up
As athletes and spectators marvelled at not one but two men smashing the once-unthinkable two-hour barrier in this year’s London Marathon, German sportswear maker Adidas also had reason to celebrate.
Shares of Adidas rose 2 per cent in early Frankfurt trading on Monday. They have dropped about 18 per cent so far this year, amid investor concerns about the impact of economic and geopolitical uncertainty on the sportswear industry.
Sawe pulled away from Kejelcha in the final moments of the race to achieve a stunning world-record time of one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, more than a minute faster than the previous best for the event. Kejelcha finished just 11 seconds behind, a remarkable feat in his first-ever competition at the 42.2km (26.2-mile) distance.
In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa pulled away from Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in the final 2km to win in a time of 2:15:41, slightly faster than last year, when she broke the “women’s only” world record, set in races without any male athletes in the competition.
For all three, the common denominator was Adidas’ Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, a shoe the company debuted on Thursday and which weighs just 97 grams (3.42 ounces) in a standard size. That’s the lightest-ever version of the sort of running sneaker that has transformed the sport of distance running in the past decade.
