A 5,000m track race at the CAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Virginia Beach, Va., ended in controversy last week when two female runners from Northeastern University were disqualified for racing in competition-illegal footwear.
The two athletes were reportedly wearing Nike’s newest Streakfly 2, a carbon-plated racing shoe with a 27 mm stack height (pictured above), which exceeds the 25 mm limit set by NCAA and World Athletics for track events. The NCAA recently implemented this rule for the 2024–2025 season, aligning with World Athletics regulations to ensure fairness and standardization across competitions.
Since the CAA Indoor Championships was a World Athletics-sanctioned meet, officials and coaches were required to check all athletes’ footwear before the competition. However, the Nike Streakfly shoes both Northeastern runners wore went under the radar, with both athletes racing the women’s 5,000m. One athlete placed fifth, running a massive 24-second personal best of 16:27, while the other runner finished 13th, in 17:43. Both were notified of their disqualifications after the race.
World Athletics introduced competition shoe regulations in 2021 to preserve the integrity of the sport and prevent unfair technological advantages. The NCAA followed suit three years later (in August 2024), ensuring that student-athlete performances could be officially recognized for qualifying for global competitions, such as the Olympics or World Athletics Championships.
Before the rule was implemented, NCAA athletes wearing shoes exceeding the 25 mm stack limit risked their times being disqualified from non-NCAA events. This also caused confusion across hundreds of meets during the condensed indoor and outdoor track seasons, regarding which meets counted and which did not. The NCAA chose to update regulations aiming to prevent such discrepancies and create a consistent level playing field at collegiate championship meets.
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