Renzo

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Nike spent ten years trying to break the 2-hour marathon. They named a project after it. They built special shoes. They paid the greatest marathoner alive to chase it. Yesterday, a Kenyan runner finally did it in 1:59:30, wearing Adidas.

Sabastian Sawe used to be a pacemaker. A pacemaker is the kind of runner you hire to set the speed for the first few miles of a race and then drop out before the finish. In January 2022, Sawe got booked to do exactly that at a half-marathon in Spain. He'd never raced more than three miles in his life. He stayed in for the full 13 and won the whole thing. Adidas signed him not long after. Four years later, he became the first human ever to run an official marathon under 2 hours.

Nike, meanwhile, started this whole project in 2016 with a public goal called "Breaking2." They paid for the shoes, the pacemakers, the science labs, and Eliud Kipchoge himself. Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019, but the event was a closed-course exhibition with rotating pacemakers and a pace car projecting a green laser line onto the road. The sport's governing body never recognized it as a real race. It didn't count.

Then Nike's running business cratered. Digital sales fell 26% in one quarter. Their share of footwear sold at Dick's Sporting Goods went from 39% to 32% in five months. On Running grew from $330 million to $1.8 billion between 2020 and 2025. Hoka nearly quadrupled. Roger Federer left Nike for On. Nike's board fired the CEO in October 2024.

Adidas spent the same period building a better shoe. The new Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 took three years to develop. It weighs 97 grams, about 3.4 ounces, lighter than a deck of cards. A Wall Street Journal-cited study found that wearing a shoe 3.5 ounces lighter saves a runner around 57 seconds across a marathon. Sawe beat the third-place finisher by 58 seconds.

Adidas also did something Nike never did for Kipchoge. They wrote a $50,000 check to the official anti-doping body for track and field, asking it to test Sawe more aggressively than any other runner alive. He got tested 25 times in the two months before last year's Berlin Marathon, and Adidas signed up to fund this for the length of his contract. The logic: the moment Sawe ran a marathon this fast, the world was going to ask if he cheated, especially after his countrywoman Ruth Chepngetich got a 3-year doping ban in 2025. Adidas got out ahead of it.

The shoe retails at $500 and is barely available. Adidas's Adizero shoes won half of all major marathon races in 2024. Yesterday in London, four of the top five finishers wore the same Adidas shoe. Yomif Kejelcha crossed the line 11 seconds after Sawe and also broke 2 hours. The top three runners all beat the previous world record.

Nike's only response was an Instagram post. Three sentences long: "The clock has been reset. There is no finish line." That was their entire public reaction to losing a 10-year moonshot to their biggest rival.

[Pablo Giralt @giraltpablo]

🤯🇻🇪 Mucha atención a la semana de los equipos venezolanos por CONMEBOL donde CUATRO rivales fueron brasileños

La Guaira 0 - Fluminense 0
U. Central 3 - Libertad 1
P. Cabello 2 - A. Mineiro 1
Botafogo 1 - Caracas 1
Carabobo 1 - Bragantino 0

¡INVICTOS en 5PJ!

[World Baseball Classic @WBCBaseball]

A cinematic ending to the #WorldBaseballClassic for Team Venezuela 🇻🇪

[Red Sox de Boston @RedSoxBeisbol]

El nuestro.

[World Baseball Classic @WBCBaseball]

This is what it's all about! ❤️

[nathy wbc champion! ⚾🇻🇪 @winddxncer]

Este video que subió ESPN a TikTok me gustó un montón 😭 🇻🇪🫂🇩🇴

[Peseteiro @jpeseteiroDT]

MIGUEL ROJAS REGRESA LE VIDA A LOS DODGERS Y EMPATA EL JUEGO EN EL NOVENO INNING 🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪

[El Extrabase ⚾️ @ElExtrabase]

¡EL HÉROE INESPERADO! ¡MIGUEL ROJAS, BICAMPEÓN DE SERIE MUNDIAL!

#LetsGoDodgers | #WorldSeries
#ElExtrabase⚾️🇻🇪

[Pablo Giralt @giraltpablo]

TREMENDO video de la Vinotinto en la previa del gran partido de mañana ante Colombia.

CON LA ILUSIÓN INTACTA 🇻🇪

[Real Madrid C.F. @realmadrid]

🤍 GRACIAS.
#GraciasLuka

[Real Sociedad Fútbol @RealSociedad]

🐃 Recordarán su nombre.

🇻🇪 JON MIKEL ARAMBURU.

#LaLigaHighlights | #LasPalmasRealSociedad

[CONMEBOL.com @CONMEBOL]

¡Al rey lo que es del rey! 👑🇻🇪

#EliminatoriasSudamericanas

[Juan Furlanich @Jfurlanich]

Impresionante el video de RMtv para estos 123 años del Real Madrid.
https://t.co/IIAnTZs7bK

[Girona FC @GironaFC]

😍 Quina manera de guanyar el partit, Yangel! 🇻🇪

#GironaSevillaFC | #LaLigaHighlights | @LaLiga

[Agustín Antonetti @agusantonetti]

Impresionante. El representante de Uruguay se acaba de plantar frente a todos en la OEA.

Si no hacemos nada con Venezuela, después NO SE QUEJEN cuando la gente dice que los organismos internacionales no servimos para nada.

Un héroe, el Turko Abdala.

https://t.co/C0Hg6X4XEl

[Comando ConVzla @ConVzlaComando]

#Atención ⚠️

Hoy, a las 2pm (hora Vzla), María Corina Machado (@MariaCorinaYA) hablará al país.

Atento a sus redes sociales.

[Miguelina Perez @gusipati19]

Aguacero! Aguacero! Aguacerooo!
Dios santo! No paro de verlo.
Gracias tenemos estas voces maravillosas y amantes de su patria #ULTIMAHORA

[UHN Plus @UHN_Plus]

🇻🇪 | URGENTE — ¡Máxima difusión!

El régimen ha secuestrado a María Corina Machado. Un operativo con 17 motos, drones y camionetas disparó contra su escolta en motos, hiriendo a uno de ellos. Tanto el motorizado herido como María Corina fueron llevados por las fuerzas del régimen.

[Leonardo Padrón @Leonardo_Padron]

Sin desperdicio!

[CONMEBOL Copa América™️ @CopaAmerica]

Si necesitas un penal atajado, lo llamas a Rafa Romo ✅