Tag: record

  • Row breaks out over running shoes after staggering world record (VIDEO) — RT Sport News

    Row breaks out over running shoes after staggering world record (VIDEO) — RT Sport News

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    Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan is facing a barrage of questions after she destroyed the 100 meters hurdles world record at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. 

    Amusan recorded a stunning time of 12.12 seconds in her semi-final run, beating the previous women’s world record set by Kendra Harrison by 0.08 seconds and shattered her old personal best by almost 0.3 seconds. 

    Amusan then broke this time in the final, running a 12.06 – though this didn’t count towards the record books as it was adjudged as being wind-assisted.

    It was Nigeria’s first-ever gold medal at the World Championships. 

    So unexpected was her time that sprint legend Michael Johnson, who was performing commentary duties at the event, wondered aloud if the timing system at the event had malfunctioned, especially given that 12 of the 24 runners across three semi-finals set new personal bests on their runs.

    I don’t believe 100h times are correct. World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set. And Cindy Sember quote after her PB/NR ‘I throughly I was running slow!’ All athletes looked shocked,” Johnson wrote on Twitter.

    Heat 2 we were first shown winning time of 12.53. Few seconds later it shows 12.43. Rounding down by .01 is normal. .10 is not.

    A deeper inquiry, though, has led to claims that the shoes worn by Amusan might be the answer to questions posed by Johnson and others.

    It emerged afterwards that she was wearing Adidas Adizero Avanti shoes – rather than traditional track spikes – athletic equipment which was designed for long-distance runners. 

    It was a decision made, she said, because these shoes have softer soles and helped to avoid relapses of plantar fasciitis which she was diagnosed with earlier this year – a type of injury which affects the soles of one’s feet.

    Laser beams, an army of pacesetters & special Nike shoes: How Eliud Kipchoge ran the first sub 2-hour marathon

    Adidas promoted the apparel as “like hitting fast-forward” and that they “provide a snappy, propulsive ride with high traction and reduce fatigue, so you finish 5km and 10km races with a kick”.

    There is no allegation of illegality in Amusan’s use of the shoes, given that they fall within the accepted standards used in such events.

    My abilities are not centered around spikes,” said Amusan, noting the controversy.

    I had patella fasciitis at the beginning of the season so that set me back for a while,” Amusan added.

    I spoke to Adidas and requested if I could get spikes with a softer sole. They recommended a lot of stuff and I feel comfortable in [the shoes], so I was using them basically the entire time.

    Speed-wise, I feel like I needed to work on my speed. I did 100m at the start of the season so that had a huge factor to come to play in the hurdles and I knew once I get the technical part out, I’d be fine.

    The spikes do seem to have an impact in hurdles events. Sydney McLaughlin, wearing similar shoes produced by a different footwear brand, broke the 400m hurdles world record earlier in the same week.

    READ MORE:
    Shoe wars: Kenyan athlete SMASHES half-marathon record as ARMS RACE between sneaker brands takes center stage

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  • UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles

    UK breaks record for highest temperature as Europe sizzles

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    LONDON – Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe, as the UK’s national weather forecaster said such highs are now a fact of life in a country ill-prepared for such extremes.
    The typically temperate nation was just the latest to be walloped by unusually hot, dry weather that has triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans and led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. Images of flames racing toward a French beach and Britons sweltering – even at the seaside – have driven home concerns about climate change.
    The UK Met Office weather agency registered a provisional reading of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) at Coningsby in eastern England – breaking the record set just hours earlier. Before Tuesday, the highest temperature recorded in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F), set in 2019. By later afternoon, 29 places in the UK had broken the record.
    As the nation watched with a combination of horror and fascination, Met Office chief scientist Stephen Belcher said such temperatures in Britain were “virtually impossible” without human-driven climate change.
    He warned that “we could see temperatures like this every three years” without serious action on carbon emissions.
    The sweltering weather has disrupted travel, health care and schools. Many homes, small businesses and even public buildings, including hospitals, in Britain don’t have air conditioning, a reflection of how unusual such heat is in the country better known for rain and mild temperatures.
    The intense heat since Monday has damaged the runway at London’s Luton airport, forcing it to shut for several hours, and warped a main road in eastern England, leaving it looking like a “skatepark,” police said. Major train stations were shut or near-empty Tuesday, as trains were canceled or ran at low speeds out of concern rails could buckle.
    London was faced with what Mayor Sadiq Khan called a “huge surge” in fires because of the heat. The London Fire Brigade listed 10 major blazes it was fighting across the city Tuesday, half of them grass fires. Images showed several houses engulfed in flames as smoke billowed from burning fields in Wennington, a village on the eastern outskirts of London.
    Sales of fans at one retailer, Asda, increased by 1,300%. Electric fans cooled the traditional mounted troops of the Household Cavalry as they stood guard in central London in heavy ceremonial uniforms. Other guards reduced their duties to stay out of the sun. The capital’s Hyde Park, normally busy with walkers, was eerily quiet – except for the long lines to take a dip in the Serpentine lake.
    “I’m going to my office because it is nice and cool,” said geologist Tom Elliott, 31, after taking a swim. “I’m cycling around instead of taking the Tube.”
    Ever the stalwart, Queen Elizabeth II carried on working. The 96-year-old monarch held a virtual audience with new U.S. ambassador Jane Hartley from the safety of Windsor Castle.
    A huge chunk of England, from London in the south to Manchester and Leeds in the north, remained under the country’s first “red” warning for extreme heat Tuesday, meaning there is danger of death even for healthy people.
    Such dangers could be seen in Britain and across Europe. At least six people were reported to have drowned while trying to cool off in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across the U.K. In Spain and neighboring Portugal, nearly 750 heat-related deaths have been reported in the heat wave there.
    Climate experts warn that global warming has increased the frequency of extreme weather events, with studies showing that the likelihood of temperatures in the U.K. reaching 40 C (104 F) is now 10 times higher than in the pre-industrial era.
    The head of the U.N. weather agency expressed hope that the heat gripping Europe would serve as a “wake-up call” for governments to do more on climate change. Other scientists used the milestone moment to underscore that it was time to act.
    “While still rare, 40C is now a reality of British summers,” said Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change. “Whether it will become a very common occurrence or remains relatively infrequent is in our hands and is determined by when and at what global mean temperature we reach net zero.”
    Drought and heat waves tied to climate change have also made wildfires more common and harder to fight.
    In the Gironde region of southwestern France, ferocious wildfires continued to spread through tinder-dry pines forests, frustrating firefighting efforts by more than 2,000 firefighters and water-bombing planes.
    Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and summer vacation spots since the fires broke out July 12, Gironde authorities said.
    A smaller third fire broke out late Monday in the Medoc wine region north of Bordeaux, further taxing resources. Five camping sites went up in flames in the Atlantic coast beach zone where blazes raged around the Arcachon maritime basin famous for its oysters and resorts.
    In Greece, a large forest fire broke out northeast of Athens, fanned by high winds. Fire Service officials said nine firefighting aircraft and four helicopters were deployed to try to stop the flames from reaching inhabited areas on the slopes of Mount Penteli, some 25 kilometers (16 miles) northeast of the capital. Smoke from the fire blanketed part of the city’s skyline.
    But weather forecasts offered some consolation, with temperatures expected to ease along the Atlantic seaboard Tuesday and the possibility of rains rolling in late in the day.
    Britain was not the only northern European country experiencing unusual heat. As Amsterdam baked Tuesday, municipal workers sprayed water on some mechanical bridges over the Dutch city’s canals to prevent metal in them from expanding, which can jam them shut blocking boat traffic. Temperatures in the city are expected to approach 39 C (102 F) Tuesday.



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  • UK leaders under fire as record heat beckons | The Guardian Nigeria News

    UK leaders under fire as record heat beckons | The Guardian Nigeria News

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    British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government stood accused Sunday of failing to take seriously an impending heat emergency as forecasters warned that lives were at risk.

    Johnson missed a crisis ministerial meeting in Downing Street Saturday while he took a weekend break at his Chequers country retreat — and was hosting a farewell party for friends Sunday before he leaves office in September.

    Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab then appeared to welcome the likelihood of temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in England for the first time.

    “Obviously there is some common-sense practical advice we are talking about -– stay hydrated, stay out of the sun at the hottest times, wear sun cream — those sorts of things,” Raab told Sky News on Sunday.

    “We ought to enjoy the sunshine and actually we ought to be resilient enough through some of the pressures it will place,” he added, insisting there was no reason for schools to close when the mercury peaks on Monday and Tuesday.

    The comments raised eyebrows, as did Johnson’s absence from the Downing Street meeting about the government’s response to the heatwave. He was forced to resign partly because of other parties held during Covid lockdowns.

    Speaking after Raab on Sky, College of Paramedics chief executive Tracy Nicholls said: “This isn’t like a lovely hot day where we can put a bit of sunscreen on, go out and enjoy a swim and a meal outside.

    “This is serious heat that could actually, ultimately, end in people’s deaths because it is so ferocious,” she said.

    “We’re just not set up for that sort of heat in this country.”

    Contrary to Raab’s sang froid, after Saturday’s meeting, government minister Kit Malthouse warned that transport services face “significant disruption” during the heatwave and said the public should work from home if possible.

    The UK capital is expected to see the highest temperatures and mayor Sadiq Khan advised Londoners only to use public transport if “absolutely necessary”.

    Ambulance services are on crisis footing, and some schools in southern England have already said they will stay shut.

    Police urged the public to stay out of waterways after a 16-year-old boy drowned in a canal in the Manchester region, northwest England, on Saturday.

    The Met Office, Britain’s state meteorological agency, has issued a first-ever “red” warning for extreme heat, cautioning there is a “risk to life” and attributing the heatwave to man-made climate change.

    Britain’s highest recorded temperature is currently 38.7C set in Cambridge, eastern England, on July 25, 2019. But that looks set to be surpassed in the Met Office’s projections for this week.



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  • ‘Not just another wave’: Australia’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels in several states | Coronavirus

    ‘Not just another wave’: Australia’s Covid hospitalisations reach record levels in several states | Coronavirus

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    This will be downvoted.

    We are a completely logical species. The best for humanity in general is for everyone to vaccinate, mask up, and socially distance. The best for “me personally, disregarding everyone else” is to vaccinate, yes, but not mask up and not socially distance. The harm that one person causes by not masking up and not socially distancing is miniscule. The harm that everyone causes by not masking up and not socially distancing is tremendous. But “I myself” cannot control everyone else. For me, with all that I can control, benefits vs costs, the most logical decision is to not mask up and not socially distance. If everyone were deciding as one unit, the most logical decision would be to mask up and socially distance. But one person cannot decide for everyone. If you mask up and socially distance, covid is still going to spread just as much because you can’t control others. Snowflake in an avalanche situation.

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