Kenenisa Bekele Did Not Wear New Nike Shoes During London Marathon Struggles

Nike manufacturers said that the running shoes that Kenenisa Bekele "blamed for his struggles" in Sunday's London Marathon were not the new model designed for use in the Breaking2 attempt on a sub-two hour marathon, according to Mitch Phillips of REUTERS. Track runner Bekele was on world record pace and "looking strong at halfway during Sunday's race but then dropped back dramatically before staging a superb recovery to finish second behind Kenya's Daniel Wanjiru." He later said that his problems had been "caused by blistering from new shoes." It was thought at the time that Bekele was wearing Nike's new Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoes. Nike said on Tuesday that Bekele was wearing the Zoom Vaporfly 4% shoes and that the Vaporfly Elite were "being used only by the three Breaking2 athletes" (REUTERS, 4/25).