The news desk
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Nike unveiled a new racing lineup with three models: the everyday-racer Swooshfly, the PR-chasing Alphafly 4, and the top-tier Apex. The Swooshfly debuts supercritical SkyX foam with a carbon fiber plate, returning up to 16% more energy than the Vaporfly 4, priced at $145 for a Spring 2027 launch, including a China-exclusive debut in February.
The athletics events at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games have officially concluded. At this edition, the Chinese athletics team won a total of 17 gold medals, 14 silver medals, and 8 bronze medals, setting 1 Asian record, 5 Games records, and 1 national record, achieving the best overseas performance since the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.
Germany's Katharina Hartmuth won the 2026 Tor des Géants in 67 hours, 10 minutes, 9 seconds, taking over 12 hours off her own women's course record and finishing third overall—the first woman on the overall podium at the 330-kilometer race.
Ethiopian runner Tigst Assefa collapsed after breaking her own course record at the Berlin Marathon in 2:11:04. Her manager, Gianni Demadonna, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday that she had successfully undergone surgery for a torn Achilles tendon.
On the fifth day of athletics at the Nagoya Asian Games, China won four golds, five silvers and two bronzes. In the men's 110m hurdles, 20-year-old Chen Yuanjiang took gold in 13.15; in the women's javelin, Yan Ziyi's opening throw of 70.46m broke the Games record and sealed gold; in the women's long jump, Huang Yingying's final leap of 6.55m completed a comeback win. In the women's marathon race walk, Kazakhstan's Yasmine Toksanbayeva was disqualified by World Athletics, with Danzeng Quzong and Ma Li promoted to gold and silver.
The 2026 Berlin Marathon started on Sunday morning local time. This is the 52nd edition of the race, with more than 56,000 people expected to participate. Ethiopia's Guye Adola won the men's race in 2:02:51, breaking the 2:03 barrier; on the women's side, Tigst Assefa was still on pace at 40K to break Ruth Chepngetich's 2:09:56 world record, but faded in the final stages and ultimately won in 2:11:04.
On September 26 Beijing time, the fourth day of athletics competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Chinese track and field athletes won a total of 1 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze in triple jump, middle-distance running, and marathon events. In the men's triple jump final, Su Wen jumped 17.42 meters on his third attempt, breaking the meet record of 17.31 meters set by Zou Sixin at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, while also setting a personal best and securing a World Championships qualifying spot. Ma Yinglong took bronze with 16.75 meters.
The Chinese Athletics Association released a report on the first three competition days of athletics at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. On September 23, the half marathon race walk made its Asian Games debut. Shi Shengji won the men's title in 1:23:32, the first athletics gold of these Asian Games and the 200th Asian Games gold in Chinese athletics history; Yang Liujing won the women's title in 1:33:40.
On September 26, the marathon at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games started at Mizuho Park Athletics Stadium. Feng Peiyou won bronze in the men's marathon in 2:12:13, and Tsering Tso won silver in the women's marathon in 2:27:43, a season's personal best. Bahrain's Shitaye Habte won the women's race in 2:27:31. Feng was in the lead group early, was fifth at 35 km, and sprinted late to overtake Han Il-ryong, the Hangzhou Asian Games silver medalist.
Skechers launches its first race day shoe, the Aero Elite, with a full ATPU midsole, carbon-infused Quantum Plate, and TPEE upper. It costs $225 and is available October 1. After a launch event run, the author calls it soft, bouncy, and under 6 ounces for a US M9.
DC Rainmaker reviews the Garmin Fenix 9 series in depth. The lineup extends LTE and satellite connectivity to solar models and the 43mm AMOLED model, raises base display brightness to 2,000 nits and Pro to 3,000 nits, and makes titanium cases and sapphire glass standard on Pro models.
DC Rainmaker's in-depth review of the Apple Watch Ultra 4 finds its optical heart rate sensor is Apple's best yet, but notes that Apple's white paper only compares timestamps where Apple has data and excludes missing points from error calculations, making the 'most accurate heart rate' claim hard to fully support in real-world scenarios.
Chamonix Mayor François-Xavier Laffin says UTMB has become unbearable, with the town effectively turned into one giant outdoor trade show. His office and municipal police tracked brand events, advertising violations and public right-of-way infringements this year, and plan a real framework for 2027 with controls and sanctions after an initial phase of education.
On June 29, the China Athletics Association held a symposium on emergency responder runners for road running events. Cui Jian, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport of China, attended and spoke. Representatives from the GAS Mass Sports Department, the China Athletics Association, road running event medical experts, emergency responder runners and event organizing committees attended.
On March 29, the Fourth East Asian Half Marathon Championships started at Yangzhou Citizens' Center Square, combined with the 2026 Bank of China Yangzhou Half Marathon and the Grand Canal Marathon Series (Yangzhou Station), with 29 athletes from 6 East Asian countries and regions participating.
On March 1, Chinese post-2000s runner Feng Peiyou finished the Tokyo Marathon, the first marathon major of the 2026 season, with a gun time of 2:05:58 (net time 2:05:57), breaking the Chinese men's marathon national record of 2:06:57 held by He Jie. He maintained a steady pace throughout, beating Japanese standouts such as Suguru Osako, Kengo Suzuki, and Ryota Kondo, and became the highest-ranked Asian athlete in this Tokyo Marathon.
The Chinese Athletics Association announced that former President Lou Dapeng died after unsuccessful medical treatment on January 25, 2026, in Beijing at the age of 89. He had served as vice president of the International Association of Athletics Federations and vice president of the Asian Athletics Association, concurrently directing its race walking and technical committee. The association said his death is a major loss to Chinese athletics and sports.
At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence, 20-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 5000m in 12:48.45, taking 13.5 seconds off his personal best, setting a European record and breaking 13 minutes for the first time.
World Athletics previews the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence. Dutch world champion Sifan Hassan, who lowered the 10,000m world record to 29:06.82c in Hengelo on Sunday (pending ratification), steps down to the 1500m, where Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon and European champion Laura Muir await. Uganda's world 5000m record-breaker Joshua Cheptegei heads a stacked 5000m field.
Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan ran 29:06.82 in the women's 10,000m at the FBK Games in Hengelo, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, breaking the world record of 29:17.45 set by Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana at the 2016 Rio Olympics by more than 10 seconds.
At the inaugural Battle of the Teams World Athletics Label Road Race in Prague, Kenya's Purity Rionoripo won the women's race in 2:20:14 and Benson Kipruto took the men's race in 2:10:16. Despite Rionoripo's individual victory, Team Birell won the team title with 7152 points ahead of Team Volkswagen's 6887.