Early Saturday morning May 6 at 5:45 am in Monza, Italy, a trio of legendary runners met up on the city’s Formula 1 racetrack to do the impossible: Break the 2-hour barrier for a full marathon run. The worldwide leading partner for Nike and proud Eurotruss user satis&fy AG constructed a massive cantilever finish gate for the event.
For the finish area the German company satis&fy AG was responsible for all the cutting edge event technology. Above the finish line a special construction was built to support the finish time clock and Nike branding of the event. The cantilever finish gate was the massive centerpiece on the finish area. It was made out of Eurotruss ST truss mounted on four ST legs in combination with ST cornerblocks. Guy wiring made the construction stiff while sufficient ballast tanks kept the gate up and stable on the ground.
Spoiler: None of the runners ended up breaking the barrier, though Eliud Kipchoge came incredibly close, finishing at 2:00:25— a colossal 2:32 under Dennis Kipruto Kimetto’s record set in 2014 during the Berlin marathon. Sadly, this run won’t be counted as a world record breaker. Nevertheless in addition to challenging the mental barrier mankind built around 2 hours, Nike’s “Breaking2” deserves recognition for what it meant simply to take this on!
