Impact of advanced footwear technology for Japanese Ekiden athletes.

Background: Advanced footwear technology (AFT) was developed with the goal of running a marathon in under 2 hours. This pace (2:51 min/km) is similar to the race pace of Ekiden, which are road relays where each athlete covers a distance ranging from 15 kilometers to 22 kilometers. This study aimed to elucidate the impact of AFT on the records of Japanese Ekiden runners.

Methods: A total of 2000 men's performances in 10,000 m and half-marathon were analyzed. Top-100 performances for 10,000 m and half marathon were subjected to One-Way group Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), including year (2014/2015/2016/2017/2018/2019/2020/2021/2022/2023).

Results: Significant improvements are observed in 10,000 m times after 2020 and half marathon times after 2018.

Conclusions: For 10,000 meters, track spikes with the AFT may improve running performance, rather than the first launch of the AFT in 2017. The improvement in the half-marathon for Japanese Ekiden athletes since 2018 may reflect improved running economy (RE). The present results would provide further evidence for Japanese Ekiden athletes to use AFT alongside the improvement in physiological measures like VO2.