When Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile on May 6th 1954, he packed up his running kit and quietly returned to his medical studies.

When Sabastian Sawe ran the first ever sub-two-hour marathon on April 26th last, he posed for photographs with the €500 Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 trainers which he is contracted to wear, thus boosting Adidas’s share price overnight as it targets the growing “super shoe” market.

For those unaware, the “super shoe” contains a curved carbon-fibre plate embedded in extra-bouncy foam. Together with its featherweight design, it has been shown to shave average running times by 1-4 per cent.

It is the latest example of “technology doping” in sport – so called because technological gains can permanently alter the nature of competition. Once a device for performance enhancement is created, all athletes are pressurised to adopt it. And it’s not just professionals bouncing on the bandwagon. The super shoe has become a more frequent sight at mini-marathons and fun runs, thanks in part to aggressive marketing.

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In the UK, Nike has been targeting Parkrun events with billboard ads telling participants: “You didn’t come all this way for a walk in the park.” Well, actually, the whole point of Parkrun is inclusivity, the........

© The Irish Times