Originally published at: The Shoes of the Top 10 Pro Women Run Splits From Taupō - Slowtwitch News
HOKA and On split the count of the most run shoes in the top 10 splits from the women’s professional field at IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds. Each brand had three representatives in the top 10 run splits. ASICS took third, with two shoe wearers. Puma and Adidas each had one woman in their shoes, respectively.
It’s somewhat surprising that there wasn’t a single Nike wearer in the mix, given how ubiquitous the AlphaFly and VaporFly have been at races for the past half decade. It’s the first time we’re not seeing someone wear Nike in the top run splits since 2019 at any of the world championship events. That said, every brand seems to be following a similar formula: carbon fiber plates with branded Pebax foam, all wrapped in a relatively lightweight package.
Here are the top 10 pro women’s run splits and the shoes they wore during it.
1.) Daniela Kleiser 1:14:15
Shoe: Puma Deviate Nitro Elite 3 Ekiden
Kleiser outran everyone by almost 80 seconds. That shouldn’t come as much surprise, as she’s routinely one of the fastest runners in the sport. However, her spectacular run was not enough to overcome a sizable deficit coming out of the water, and she would finish in 19th position.
Kleiser is a Puma sponsored athlete, and wore Puma’s Deviate Nitro Elite 3 in a limited release color way from Japan. It’s a carbon-plated racer that, similarly to Nike’s line, features a slightly higher heel-toe offset. It’s also on the light side for a carbon plated racer, coming in at 6.3 ounces for a women’s size 8.
2.) Kat Matthews – 1:15:34
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge Paris
Matthews continued her streak of second place finishes in world championship events, narrowly missing out on chasing down Taylor Knibb. Still, her performance was enough to claim the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series title, and a bonus check of $200,000 for her effort.
Matthews moved to ASICS MetaSpeed Edge Paris after Nice this year. The Edge Paris shaves a 15 grams from her prior pair of shoes, while a re-designed forefoot curvature gives a slightly longer stride length than the prior model. Still, it’s meant for athletes looking for faster turnover, versus the MetaSpeed Sky that is meant to increase pace by increasing stride length further.
3.) Tamara Jewett – 1:16:12
Shoe: ASICS MetaSpeed Edge+
Jewett is no stranger to running through fields, dicing her way to the front once she puts her bike away. Taupō was no different as she used her run prowess to charge into the top 10.
Jewett is another athlete wearing ASICS MetaSpeed shoes. The Edge+ is slightly cushier than the standard Edge, with 16% more cushioning underfoot. There’s a carbon fiber plate, married to ASICS proprietary foam blend, called FF Blast Turbo. It’s slightly heavier than the Paris version that Matthews wore.
4.) Ashleigh Gentle – 1:16:26
Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike
The top-rated runner in the field (per the PTO’s ranking system), Gentle’s run prowess was again on full display at 70.3 Worlds. She pushed into the podium slots midway through the run and was able to stay there, adding to a season where she only finished off the podium twice.
Gentle wore On’s carbon racer, the Cloudboom Strike. It is slightly heavier than some of the other shoes mentioned so far, but at 6.8 ounces, it’s not a particularly bulky shoe. On claims that their spoon-shaped Speedboard (their take on a carbon fiber plate) provides increased running efficiency by transferring impact energy through toe-off.
5.) Grace Thek – 1:19:14
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X 2
Thek led the “best of the rest” run class — nearly a full three minutes behind the pace set by Gentle and crew above. But that run was still enough to move up to 10th place on the day — Thek’s first top 10 and first paycheck from 70.3 Worlds.
Thek wore the tried and true HOKA Rocket X 2. First making its debut at Kona 2022 as an unofficial prototype, the Rocket X 2 brought the brand’s trademark rocker profile, light weight (for the amount of cushioning offered), and carbon fiber plate together in a cohesive package for the first time. (The original Rocket lacked cushioning.) It’s getting a bit long in the tooth, at almost two full calendar years on the market, but like Nike’s VaporFly and AlphaFly, it’s still on the feet of plenty of athletes.
6.) Ellie Salthouse – 1:19:15
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X 2
Salthouse, another HOKA sponsored athlete, utilized her sixth fastest run split to wind up seventh.
7.) Taylor Knibb – 1:19:20
Shoe: HOKA Rocket X 2
If you remove Knibb’s port-o-john stop, she had the fifth fastest run on the day. But we don’t remove stops, as the clock does not stop, so she slots in here. Regardless, the now three-time IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion did enough to hold off Matthews’ charge on the run.
Interestingly, all three women opted to eschew HOKA’s more recent carbon-fiber racer, the Cielo X1, for the tried and true Rocket X 2.
8.) Julie Derron – 1:19:38
Shoe: On Cloudboom Echo 3
The Olympic silver medalist, Derron tried valiantly to repeat her performance from Paris. But she wound up losing out to Gentle and Imogen Simmonds to wind up sliding to a fifth place finish.
Compared to the Strike that Gentle wore, the Cloudboom Echo is the lightest racer in On’s line. It, too, features the Speedboard (although in a unique shape) and a blend of On’s Pebax and “standard” foams for cushioning.
9.) Paula Findlay – 1:20:31
Shoe: On Cloudboom Strike LS
Findlay closed out her 2024 campaign with another strong showing at IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds, finishing sixth. It’s her third straight top 10 finish at 70.3 Worlds.
Findlay ran in a shoe yet to be released to the general public, the Cloudboom Strike LS. Take the Cloudboom Strike and put a laceless upper, called LightSpray, and you get the Strike LS. The upper weighs a total of 30 grams and is made from a single, 1,500 meter long thread. There’s environmental benefits, too, since the design eliminates the need for adhesives, and reduces the carbon footprint by 75%. It comes at a cost, though: the shoe carries an eye-watering MSRP of $330 USD.
10.) Solveig Lovseth – 1:20:36
Shoe: Adidas Adizero Adios Pro 3
Loevseth’s tenth best run was the key to her top 15 finish and a paycheck, nipping Hannah Berry to the line for 13th place.
The Adizero Adios Pro (say that three times fast) is — you guessed it — another carbon-fiber plated race shoe. Lightstrike Pro is Adidas’ take on Pebax foam, with two separate layers sandwiching the plate, dubbed Energyrods 2.0. Coming in closer to the 7 ounce mark in a women’s size 8, it’s a little closer to the AlphaFly formula than others.
