W a l t e r

Team leader

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@Bossyator Good job.

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

Arsenal: 2025/26 Premier League champions.

[Jurrien Timber @JurrienTimber]

How good is god man

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@edwinsifuna @RadioJamboKenya Hapo kwa Aresnali is where we draw the line bana

[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.

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@Branicemercy The reverse is true. Runnis is so hard. It tests your mental fuculties more than stamina.

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

This is truly the most beautiful video I’ve seen lately

So tender and heart-warming, yet it makes you stop and reflect, with a subtle touch of sadness

We may have gained so much, but perhaps we’ve lost even more✨

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@JaphethOtieno01 Who told you?

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@_fels1

[Crazy Kennar @crazy_kennar]

WHEN YOU ANNOUNCE YOU ARE RUNNING FOR PRESIDENCY IN UGANDA 😂😂😂😂

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@BeaumontWest @KeNHAKenya @KURAroads @ntsa_kenya Good.move. We have no standard for bumps and rumble strips in the country. This should not br the case.

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@premierleague @BarclaysFooty Unai

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@Urunzii On location. Kakamega

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@MissKwegah1 Spotted the Merc around Shirere Kakamega. Lovely car

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@RailaOdinga @okothkelvin_ Cheers!! Cheers!!

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@NelsonHavi Beautiful. Day light photos?

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@Bossyator what are your thoughts on this high rise perimeter wall with external metallic support?

[UK in Kenya 🇬🇧🇰🇪 @UKinKenya]

Did you know 🇬🇧 dart boards manufacturer Nodor Darts in Athi River produces approximately 10,000 🎯 weekly and employs over 400 🇰🇪.

70% of all tournament-grade 🎯 globally are produced in 🇰🇪- giving 🇰🇪 a rare distinction of hosting one of the world’s largest 🎯manufactures.

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@samiefrank @alexmwanzo Any rough patches?

[W a l t e r @walterayata]

@TheStarKenya To this effect, the Galleria–Karen section of Langata Road will also need to be dualled to enhance mobility around the proposed facility.