UO researchers divided on chances of sub-2-hour marathon

Nike hopes one of its athletes will be the first to break the 2-minute mark in the marathon in an upcoming race in Italy, and experts around the world and at the UO are divided over whether the effort will be successful.

In an article in Reuters, Mike Hahn, the director of the UO’s Bowerman Sports Science Clinic, said he doesn’t think it will happen at this event, predicting a winning time of 2:00:30. But it might happen in the future.

“It is physiologically possible,” he said. “It’s a little harder to pin down exactly when it will happen.”

However, Evan Day, a doctoral student who works in Hahn’s clinic, is predicting success for the runners. “The world record is a definite; it’s just a matter of by how much,” he said, setting his prediction at 1:59:59.

For more, see “Athletics: Experts divided over chances of sub-two hour marathon” on Reuters.

Hahn, who has directed the Bowerman Sports Science Clinic since 2012, also teaches courses in biomechanics and capstone research. He’s currently researching projects in the areas of prosthetic engineering, treatment outcomes in ankle osteoarthritis, neural control of powered prosthetic or orthotic devices and mechanisms of locomotor adaptation after lower limb injury.

Day joined the clinic in 2015 after completing his previous two degrees at Iowa State University. He wrote his master’s thesis about the effects of wedged shoe inserts on iliotibial band mechanics during running.