So far, two hurdles and one double jump record have been significantly broken at the Olympic Stadium, with Elaine Thopson-Herah setting the second best time in history in the shortest sprint behind a seemingly unbeaten Florence Griffith-Joyner.

And there is debate about how much athlete training continues to improve behind such significant advances and how much technology advances. However, the hurdle record is not an individual “flight”, two athletes always fall below the current record and a third has it within reach.

Sprinters praised the track at the Olympic Stadium. Italian company Mondo, which has been building athletic surfaces since the Montreal Olympics in 1976, designated it “the most technologically advanced track in the world” in Tokyo.

The designers tried to make the track absorb the runner’s steps and then return some of the energy to it. “It’s like my feet are spinning and there’s no ground under me,” wonders Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands, an unforgettable fourth hurdling race.

“I ran the world for the first time this year and the difference is clear,” said Sydney McLaughlin, who improved her world record in the 400m hurdles.

New footwear technology is sparking more controversy. They’ve been accelerating endurance athletes for several years now, and now they’re breaking more and more even among runners at shorter distances. Men’s hurdle phenomenon Karsten Warholm has a Puma shoe developed in collaboration with engineers from the Mercedes Formula 1 stable with thin carbon blades. His biggest rival Rai Benjamin, in turn, runs the revolutionary “supertrets” of the Nike brand.

But the sort of foam cushion inside was a thorn in Warholom’s eyes. “I thought it was bullshit, that’s the thing I hate to run in the air,” he said after the record-breaking race.

“I don’t know why I put something under my running shoes. Then there’s the trampoline effect, and it takes away the credibility of our sport,” said Warholm. Of course, technology will always play a role, but the important thing is that our performance is comparable, “he explained. Fast too.”

The importance of the new technology was not overstated by the Czech militia Diana Mezuliáníková. “Of course, thanks to them, athletics is moving to incredible limits, which may never stop. But no shoe fits you. When you have form, you can run it in quotes and sneakers,” said the semifinalist of the Olympic race. .