The winner of the USATF 100 mile Road Championships has been disqualified after it was discovered that his shoes exceeded the maximum allowable stack height.
Rajpaul Pannu crossed the finish line first at the 2025 Jackpot 100 Mile Road Championships, wearing a pair of HOKA’s Skyward X shoes. A post-race protest was filed, and the shoe was deemed to violate World Athletics (and by extension, USATF’s) maximum sole height of 40 millimeters.
Officially, the offending Skyward X measured 48 millimeters in the heel, and 43 millimeters in the forefoot.
Cody Poskin inherited the championship after Pannu’s disqualification.
Pannu, in a statement on social media, was not originally planning on wearing the Skyward X. “I initially thought they were trainers, too heavy to be considered a super shoe,” he said. “However, they seemed supportive enough for me to showcase what I’m capable of doing: running fast.”
Notably, it was not a fellow competitor that reported Pannu’s shoes to USATF officials. Instead, it was an interested party watching the livestream that appeared to have been the genesis of the investigation. “No one on the course cared about the stack height of my shoes. Not even the USATF official,” wrote Pannu.
Yeah…that’s why I put it in “quotes”. I can’t even tell the he “assumed they were legal.” The statement doesn’t seem to imply that he actually considered their legality (or not).
I find it a bit challenging to accept that a top top runner isn’t sufficiently informed about the dimension limits of shoes which are legal. The idea that he ‘thought they were a trainer’ (ie not for racing) is laughable.
And what sort of responsibility is being shown by USATF officials (on the day): this is a live issue. Are they all ignorant too, or just complicit?
Nine months ago:
" the Skyward features a 48-millimeter stack height and a revolutionary suspension system, nestled between two layers of foam. Such a tall boost level is banned by World Athletics, which requires the drops to stay at 40-mm drops or less to compete in any timed road event."
Maybe the most interesting factoid is that the protest was filed by livestream viewer. Thought it had to be a coach or participant at the event. Wonder if triathlon will also take outside viewer protests
World Athletics rules are challenging to quickly interrogate - the AI reading of these rules suggest protests can only be filed by fellow competitors or parties representing competitors (whatever that means??). There are also some suggestions that there are some requirements by the organizer that they make clear that the rule is / will be enforces - this may simply be by virtue of being a USATF event and the implied sanctioning. The organizer also needs to be prepared to perform measurements…sounds like someone needs to protest the protest and just really drive this shoe-show into a wall.
