ABABEL YESHANEH OF Ethiopia has smashed the world record for the women’s half-marathon in Nike’s controversial Vaporfly trainers. 

Yeshaneh took 20 seconds off the record held by Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei at the Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) event in the United Arab Emirates, winning in a time of 1:04:31.

She did so in Nike’s new Vaporfly trainers, which claim to increase an athlete’s performance by 4%. 

Yeshaneh triumphed over Brigid Kosgei, who set a new world record at last year’s Chicago marathon and had won 11 straight races from October 2018 to now.

Kosegi also raced in Vaporflys and, in spite of finishing second, she also beat Jepkosegi’s 2017 world record by crossing in a time of 1:04:49. Like Yeshaneh, she raced in Nike Vaporflys.

These times add further weight to the argument that Nike’s shoe technology is fundamentally altering the sport. In the last 18 months, athletes wearing Vaporflys have broken world records in the men’s 5km and 10km races along with the women’s and men’s marathon and half-marathon. 

The shoes improve an athlete’s performance by reducing the amount of energy used with each stride. They use a firm, Pebax foam on each heel along with a curved carbon plate in the sole of each shoe to create a spring effect. 

Use of the shoe has been widely derided as an example of “mechanical doping”, and respected sports scientist Ross Tucker has described the Vaporflys as “the shoe that broke running.” 

The shoes will be permitted at this year’s Olympic games, as they fall within regulations published earlier this month by World Athletics. The governing body say shoes that are available to buy on the market no later than April this year with a “stack height” (the height of the foam at the heel) of 40mm or less will be allowed at the Games, regulations within which the Vaporflys fall. 

Yeshaneh, 28, finished 14th in the final of the women’s 5,000m at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and finished second to Kosgei at last year’s Chicago marathon. 

Ireland’s Sarah Kelly, meanwhile, finished 17th in the RAK half-marathon, crossing in a time of 1:27:37. Gillian Clarke placed 21st in a time of 1:30:18 with Niamh O’Donoghue 26th and Sarah Lowry 40th.