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It seems like yesterday when the concept of artificial intelligence was naive. However, today it has taken over the world by storm. A large crowd is enamoured by the theory of it and some are still inquisitive about it. The advanced technology has created a stir in almost every industry, including healthcare, fashion, wearables, retail, logistics and more. Undoubtedly, AI has revolutionised most sectors to create a never-seen-before history, just like some betting websites like asiabet8888.com have done.

Today, we are here to throw some light on this state-of-the-art mechanisation and how it is set to evolve the footwear world.

Fact Finding: Some statistics suggest that the global AI market is forecasted to reach a figure of USD 1,260 million by 2024.

A pinch of AI in athletic shoes

Verification

Undeniably, counterfeits have flooded the sneaker market and how! There has been a strong emergence of fake copies in brands like Nike, adidas, Puma and more. Entrupy, a product authentication technology, has been introduced to find out if a sneaker is fake or real. In the case of a sneaker, it is placed inside the device only to capture pictures from different angles and further analysed in detail using artificial intelligence. To your surprise, the counterfeit is recognised within seconds.

Prevent injuries

The role of AI in athletic shoes is indispensable today. Sports teams are making use of AI-generated footwear to help players prevent injuries. Also called smart shoes, they are designed to comprehend the peak performance of the athlete, thereby reducing injury potential.

Sneaker Fit

According to Nike, almost 60% of people are wearing the wrong shoe size. The brand has integrated artificial intelligence technology to solve this problem. A foot scanning solution has been introduced to integrate a persons best fit. This is still in the early stages amongst most brands, but Nike believes a sneaker is far beyond just looking good.

Technology or coach?

Little did we know that shoes are soon going to coach athletes on how to run. Runvi is all geared to introduce a shoe that can monitor individual runs with the help of pressure points, power sensors and an accelerator that collects data. In a literal sense, an athletic shoe flaunts a human brain.

Smart sole

Digisole has come out with a sneaker thats exclusive and super intelligent. The smart shoe is interactive and can behave like a personal mentor. It examines the posture, health, calories and steps; while ensuring accurate data. The gen-next shoe features auto-lacing, real-time and regulation of temperature.

As rightly said, AI is predicted to rule the sportswear industry. Significant advances in this technology can predict an athletes performance in every way. Apart from that, it has now become imperative to integrate AI in fashion footwear as well. With a massive increase in technology use, the shoe industry has become capable of providing tailored solutions.

Tributes pour in for coaching legend who was best known for guiding Linford Christie to Olympic gold

It is hard to think of an athletics coach more committed to the cause of helping athletes reach their potential than Ron Roddan. The 91-year-old, who died in the early hours of Friday (Feb 10), dedicated himself to the sport for several decades guiding, most notably, Linford Christie to world and Olympic 100m titles.

Roddan was born in Crewe but moved to London with his family as a child and joined Thames Valley Harriers shortly after World War II in 1947. He was a good club-level sprinter, winning medals at the Middlesex Championships and running the quarter-mile in 50.2, but later found his true calling as a sprints coach and from 1964 onwards guided several dozen athletes to international level. 

Like many coaches, he fell into the role by accident too. When his own coach retired, Roddan was encouraged by his clubmates to take over. Initially, I carried on with what my coach had taught us, but then I went on courses, met other coaches and began to put my own ideas to work, he later recalled.

Roddan also combined coaching with a job as an engineer. He had a spell in of national service in the Army, too, before becoming a Geological Society laboratory technician until he was made redundant in 1990.

His coaching initially took place in Alperton and then at West London Stadium an arena that would later be named after Christie and he coached athletes of all standards. My athletes getting PBs or just running better than they thought they were capable of those moments make me feel that it is all worthwhile, he said.

Roddans first major successes were Mick Hauck, who developed into a 46.75 400m runner, plus Dick Steane, who set a British 200m record of 20.66 at the Mexico City Olympics. Many more followed before that day in 1979 when the 19-year-old Christie approached Roddan.

He had placed second in the English Schools 200m and his best times were just 10.7 and 21.8. Christie clearly had talent but in those early days lacked self-discipline. He just wouldnt come training and only did when he felt like it, Roddan recalled.

Following the 1984 season, by which time Christies PBs were down to 10.44 and 21.38, Roddan gave him an ultimatum on the lines of either work seriously or dont waste my time. It worked and in 1985 he clocked a wind-assisted 10.20 and early in 1986 he won his first international title, the European indoor 200m gold.

Later that year he succeeded Allan Wells as UK record-holder for 100m before going on to win Olympic 100m gold in Barcelona in 1992 and the world title in Stuttgart in 1993. Inspired by his mentor, Christie later went into coaching himself.

The Independent once wrote of Roddan: He is always there (for Christie). He has been since a teenage Christie first ambled into the Thames Valley Harriers club and took a half-hearted interest in being a sprinter.

Roddan diverted him from a life of freewheeling to one of extraordinary dedication that turned him into a millionaire Olympic champion and his coach into . . . well in to being slightly better known, perhaps a bit better off, a lot better travelled, but at the end of the day still the guy who turns up in the middle of December at the grandly named, badly under-funded Linford Christie stadium. There he gives as much attention to kids with not a hope in the world of emulating Christie as he does to Olympians.

In addition to guiding Christie to his major triumphs, Roddan also coached 2000 Olympic medallists Darren Campbell and Katharine Merry. He has also had input with athletes such as Frankie Fredericks, Bruny Surin, Joice Maduaka and Jamie Baulch, plus many more.

Roddan had a quiet, modest personality but was forthright with his views. He was a regular letter writer to AW and would often call the magazine to voice his concerns over the sport.

Im not pushy, he once said. Im the opposite to what most sprinters are. Theyre brash, loud and extroverted. I dont know what it is but I just seem to be approachable.

As recently as 2017, for example, he wrote to the magazine to argue that the medal tally by British athletes at the World Championships in London that year was poor given the amount of funding. Over the last decade, he said, coaching has gone downhill. Go back to the system of the 1980s and 90s where 6-8 national coaches work with club coaches and their athletes. This way everyone helps each other to improve.

In his later years, not surprisingly, he earned a number of accolades such as the Ron Pickering Memorial Award for Services to Athletics and in 2016 he was inducted into the England Athletics hall of fame.

Announcing his death, Christies management agency Nuff Respect said: It is with deep sadness that we heard the news that the amazing and irreplaceable Ron Roddan passed away. Ron was a valued coach at Thames Valley Harriers which came to be his second home, but his relationships reached far beyond West London.

His coaching achievements are too many to mention but the most obvious is the Olympic, world, Commonwealth and European medals that Linford won with Ron by his side and the Olympic medals won by Katharine Merry and Darren Campbell at the Sydney Olympics.

Ron was devoted to his athletes, brutally honest, pushing them to their absolute best. This most modest of men was at his happiest with a stopwatch in his hand, standing trackside.

Christie himself once said that money and medals aside, the thing he prized most at the end of a race was seeing a smile on Rons face.

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For the first time since the onset of the pandemic, the London Marathon returns to its usual April slot this year, and there will be more attention than ever on the mens race. Partly because athletics fans have missed the early Spring showdown in its full glory, but perhaps more importantly because four of the five fastest men in the world will be entering the field. A year out from Paris, distance running fanatics and Cyprus sports betting experts will be focusing closely on a field with plenty of veterans and no shortage of younger challengers. It promises to be a real occasion.

This year will be slightly marred by the absence of Eliud Kipchoge, who has won the race four times in the past. In 2023, he has chosen to focus on his first attempt at the Boston Marathon, and has left the field open to other runners which, gratifyingly, includes the defending champion Amos Kipruto. Also present, competing for the last time in this event (and possibly his final race as a pro), will be Mo Farah. It will be an emotional farewell of some sort for Farah we just dont know how emotional and how much of a farewell. Hes an outsider for the race, though, behind the following contenders.

Amos Kipruto

Kipruto has a slower PB over the distance than a lot of the men running here, but he does have the benefit of having shown the required form over the course. That counts for a lot, particularly in an event as prestigious as the London Marathon. Kipruto is in good spirits in the lead-up to the race, and sounds confident that he can defend his title. Its going to be up to the other runners to show that they can master the famous course; knowing when to press an advantage is going to be important, and Kipruto will be reassured by the knowledge that hes the only confirmed competitor to have won the race before.

Kenenisa Bekele

Although he is now into his forties, Bekele is running just as fast as some of the twentysomethings in this race, and has been setting course records in the past year. He has the third-fastest marathon time in history behind only Kipchoge and he certainly has the confidence to take on all comers, having declared in the last year that he is the best distance runner of all time. Bekele will probably take a back seat in the odds when they come out, but he will never take a back seat in the field, and he will be well worth watching when the starting pistol is fired.

Kelvin Kiptum

Having built up his reputation running half-marathons, Kiptum burst on to the full-distance scene in Valencia in December. His debut marathon was run in 2:01:53, the fourth-fastest ever over the distance, and left favourite and World champion Tamirat Tola in his rear-view mirror. London will be a different challenge altogether, but hes already shown the ability to make a step up without flinching, so we could see Kiptum tick off another career milestone at the age of just 23.

Attractive rewards for athletes racing in the popular Channel Islands event from April 7-10

Guernsey Athletics Club has boosted the value of cash prizes to competitors in this years EY Guernsey Easter Running Festival to encourage more off island athletes to compete.

The four-day festival will be held over the Easter weekend, starting on Friday April 7 with a 5km road race, with the last event, the 10km road race, on Monday April 10. Both road races are flat courses along Guernseys coastline and depending on the wind direction they can be very fast or quite challenging routes to complete.

The Keith Falla Memorial full course cross country takes place on Saturday April 8 running around scenic LAncresse Common for 4.75 miles and a 41 mile relay race will take place at Delancey Park on Sunday April 9.

Most competitors will enter all events to have the chance to win the overall prize in addition to the individual prizes. An individual competitor who finished first in all three individual races would take home 850 in total being 250 for each of the 5km and 10km races, another 100 for the cross country and the overall prize of another 250.

The total value of prizes is over 4000 with separate prizes for male and female competitors over the three main events plus veterans prizes for each. The club is also offering a full refund of their entry fees to any visiting athlete who beats the Island Games A standard which is 15:40 for the 5km race and 33:00 for the 10km race for men and 18:10 for the 5km race and 39:40 for the 10km race for female competitors.

Ove Svejstrup, Partner at EY in Guernsey and a participant in the festival, highlights why this sponsorship is important to EY: We are delighted to be continuing our sponsorship of the EY Easter Running Festival.

Having the opportunity to support Guernsey Athletics with an event which puts the physical and mental health of the local community at the forefront is so important to us. It was great to see so many familiar faces and new runners embracing the challenge and taking part in the festival last year. I look forward to lining up at the start line with, and against, colleagues and friends over the Easter weekend.

Graham Merfield, Chairman of the Guernsey Athletics Club, added: The islands running festival is back and better thanks to EYs continued support as our festival sponsor. Whether youre a local runner or visiting over the bank holiday weekend, theres an event for everyone, from the 5km road race on Good Friday to the 10km on Easter Monday. There are also events for our younger runners. Grab your running shoes and get ready to hit the road!

For updates and further information on the event, please follow the Guernsey Easter Running Festival Facebook page or visit the EY Easter Running Festival website to enter guernseyeasterrunning.com.