At the warm-up track for the recent European Athletics Championships in Rome, the bins invariably contained one particularly eye-catching white packet and tub.
And, all around, athletes were quite openly spooning out and consuming an unusual – and entirely approved – gel-like substance packed with white ‘mini-tablets’. A similar scene has been evident inside team buses at the start of major cycling races, at Diamond League athletics and now, increasingly, even in regional and national athletics competitions.
“Absolute gold dust,” says one leading coach.
“It’s game-changing,” added an Olympian in athletics, who estimates that more than 80 per cent – and rising – of elite international runners at distances from 800m and above are now using what is known as the ‘Bicarb System’.
Telegraph Sport have also been told of several leading Premier League football clubs actively trialling the product and, while still largely unheard of outside elite sport, it will be used at Paris 2024 across just about every endurance sport.
What is the ‘Bicarb System’?
Designed by the Swedish sports nutrition company Maurten, it is essentially a new answer to an old problem. Research suggesting the performance-enhancing properties of sodium bicarbonate – a household substance better known for its cake-making uses by the name of baking soda – first emerged almost a century ago.
The big problem was that, in trying to digest any significant quantity before intense exercise, a very large number of athletes found themselves requiring multiple emergency visits to the toilet.
Maurten had already designed a hydrogel for bypassing the gut while ingesting carbohydrates and, sensing an opportunity, began working with experts like the British sports physiologist and nutritionist Dr Andy Sparks to see if something similar could be developed for sodium bicarbonate.
Who is using it?
It was brought to a mass market last year [at a cost of £15 per serving] and, while still a largely niche product, the uptake has snowballed. Maurten believe that two-thirds of the medallists in middle and long-distance events at the World Athletics Championship in Budapest were using their product and say that its use has “exploded” since 2023.
Jumbo-Visma, for whom Primož Roglič won the Tour of Italy and Spain, are among Maurten’s nutrition partners in cycling and they have a similar arrangement with both the On and NN Running teams in athletics. NN’s star athletes include the Olympic women’s 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon. Telegraph Sport has also been told that the late Kelvin Kiptum used their sodium bicarbonate before his marathon world record last year.
Team GB’s Keely Hodgkinson is among the athletes who now openly uses their bicarb system and, prior to her European Championship-winning run in June, she and training partner Erin Wallace were both photographed with the little pots. With Hogdkinson suffering from a virus, Wallace was also taking it just in case she would need to directly replace her team-mate in the final.
“We’ve not seen any gastro problems – so now you get all the benefits without the negative side effects – I couldn’t recommend it strongly enough,” says Trevor Painter, Hodgkinson’s coach, whose group has five athletes at this year’s Paris Olympics. He added: “If you make a super spike, you are going to be limited to athletics. With this product, whether running, swimming, cycling, football, rugby, you would benefit. The numbers back it up.”
‘It’s not an advantage – you are at a disadvantage if you don’t use it’
Painter’s wife is Jenny Meadows, herself a World and European championship medallist at 800m, who now also oversees their M11 Track Club team. “Two hours before the race starting – you can see almost every single person having it,” she says. “So you’ve not got an advantage because everyone is using it. You are at a disadvantage if you don’t use it. They [Maurten] have spent time with some of the world’s top athletes, asking their opinions, trying to improve the product.”
Some athletes have still complained of more minor side effects while some sports scientists – such as newly crowned three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar’s coach – have previously made sceptical comments about its likely benefits.
How does it work?
Dr Sparks, who is a research fellow at Liverpool John Moores University, had been studying different methods of delivering bicarbonate long before working with Maurten on developing what he calls their “late release capsules”.
Once any negative reaction with stomach acids have been averted, sodium bicarbonate is believed to be beneficial during strenuous exercise of more than about a minute because of the body’s production of hydrogen ions and lactate salt.
Hydrogen ions make muscles and blood more acidic – thus decreasing efficiency – but the working theory is that the sodium bicarbonate helps to “flush” those hydrogen ions out more quickly. There is also a belief that the lactate itself is moved more rapidly and can thus be used as a fuel.
On top of the positive anecdotal feedback, early studies – such as on 40km cycling efforts – suggest tangible performance gains. Precisely quantifying the improvements, says Sparks, is impossible but the flood of personal bests and national records this summer has certainly not gone unnoticed. “I think we have opened a very interesting door,” says Sparks, who also highlighted improved shoe technology and advances in the delivery of carbohydrates.
‘You could say this is levelling the playing field’
Herman Reuterswärd, Maurten’s head of communications, claims they had found the “holy grail” in this area but stressed that the company was still in an “exploration” phase, including with optimal individual dosages and how it might change training as well as racing.
“The feedback from athletes has been amazing,” he said, while also acknowledging the philosophical debate that surrounds the use of any performance aid.
“It’s a similar debate about the super spikes or aerodynamics,” he said. “Maurten did not invent sodium bicarbonate. It is performance enhancing but is it fair that only some people could stomach it? You could say that this is levelling the playing field.”
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