NAGOYA: Well, well. Improper footwear can lead to disqualification. It is within the rules of World Athletics (WA) but such incidents in elite level competitions are rare. In a bizarre incident, race walk marathon gold medallist was disqualified after athletics technical officials found her shoes violating WA's shoes norms.
According to an official, the shoes did not have the specifications as mandated by the WA and the organisers sought WA's advice. Shoes give added advantage to athletes just like swimsuits in swimming. They call it technological doping. The very requirement of rules to restrict unauthorized shoes stemmed from Nike's development programme – the Vaporfly that used lightweight hard sole Pebax that helps in less energy loss while running.
It was used during the Rio Olympics and a lot of records were broken the same year. WA had to step in and ban it until about 2020. It is not just the foam, the shoe had a carbon plate inside. Finally, after multiple studies, WA allowed vaporfly. Indian marathon runners prefer Asics. Though the gold medallist was disqualified, it did not change India's fortune.
Bengali advisories in stations & trains
Bengali in Japan? One may find public announcements in Hindi here and there but Bengali was unexpected. Especially in public places and written advisories pasted on train stations and inside trains too. Just imagine what the words sandwiched in between Korean, Chinese, Bhasha and other prominent South East Asian languages would evoke? Yes, of course, one may twitch forehead in bewilderment. During a casual conversation with a local, it was revealed that there is a sizeable population of Bengalis from India and Bangladesh here. It was found that in most of the public places, such advisories are pasted so that there is no friction between them and the local community especially in civic issues like garbage disposal system and respecting Japanese etiquette.