THERE remains only one major barrier to be broken in athletics. With the four-minute mile having been conquered and the sub-10-second 100m been run, the only milestone left is the sub-two-hour marathon.

But this record may not last too much longer. This week, Nike announced a project which has the aim of breaking the two-hour mark for the marathon. This barrier has been talked about for several years, with many predicting that it would be decades before any athlete gets close to this mark, but Nike believes that they can help an athlete to break this record in the springtime. Yes, the spring of 2017.

The current marathon world record is 2 hours 2 minutes 57 seconds, which was set by Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto in Berlin in 2014. On the face of it, cutting less than three minutes from the current mark seems a realistic prospect, but in reality three minutes is an eternity in race terms.

The current world record averaged out at 4 mins 41 secs per mile, leaving Kimetto over half a mile from the finish line at the two-hour mark. To go under two hours, the runner would have to run at a pace of 4 min 34 secs per mile for the entire 26.2 miles. To date, nobody has come close to that.

But despite the two-hour mark seemingly being out of reach at the moment, Nike believes that it can get an athlete to break it. The sportswear company has assembled a 20-strong support team which is designed to exploit every marginal gain possible. There are designers, engineers, coaches and physiologists assigned to the project to give the athletes access to the best possible expertise as they chase this historic mark. The runner’s training, nutrition and equipment will all be specifically geared towards dipping under two hours. But most importantly, there are the athletes.

Nike has selected three runners: Eliud Kipchoge, Lelisa Desisa and Zersenay Tadese. Kipchoge is an obvious choice – the Kenyan is the current Olympic champion and has been one of the world’s top marathon runners for over a decade. Desisa is also one of the world’s top marathon runners and at the age of only 26, the Ethiopian is likely to still have considerable room for improvement. The third runner that Nike has selected,Tadese, is the current world half-marathon record holder. His selection is somewhat surprising in that his current marathon best is only 2:10.41, a considerable way from the two-hour mark. However, after rigorous testing, Nike have presumably deemed Tadese to have significant room for improvement in his marathon times.

The trio of runners have agreed to miss the lucrative spring marathons in 2017 in order to allow them to attempt this record so that decision alone suggests that they believe that breaking the two-hour mark is possible.

The ambition of Nike’s plan is indisputably exciting, yet there are some considerable drawbacks. The most glaring negative is that the attempt is likely to be so heavily contrived that it will remove much of the beauty of a marathon. As the renowned South African sports scientist, Ross Tucker, observed, the course is likely to be closed, downhill and with a tailwind. It is not quite as straightforward as throwing the runners on a downhill for 26.2 miles though; as Tucker has said, every one per cent decrease in gradient causes around a four to five per cent reduction in volume of oxygen (VO2).

But while running downhill reduces demand on the heart and lungs, it increases the muscle load on the athlete’s legs. So the perfect gradient would have to be found. Specialised running shoes could provide significant gains – but only if they were to incorporate springs which would, in turn, reduce the athlete’s oxygen usage and enhance mechanical efficiency. And drafting can reduce times significantly too. Are all these things legal if Nike want the record to be authorised? It’s debatable.

Taking three minutes off the current record is certainly an audacious goal but if Nike can exploit every potential gain then it is a possibility. But there is something eminently unattractive about such an iconic record being broken in such a manufactured way. There would immediately be doubts about whether the athlete has done it clean, although Nike has admitted that a transparent testing system is a must. But there are other factors that may not be as poisonous as doping that would still devalue this record. To this day, there remains something mesmerising about watching Roger Bannister break the four-minute mile barrier for the first time. It was done on sheer will alone and while athletes have gone much faster in recent years, Bannister’s run never gets boring.

Would a sub-two-hour marathon completed in these contrived circumstances hold the same thrill? I doubt it. A sub-two-hour marathon would certainly be impressive, but there are occasions when things are best left alone to improve organically. And this is one of these times.