Air Zoom Victory 2 vs Zoom Mamba 6

The Nike Air Zoom Victory 2 is a middle-distance track spike built for one job: turning a fast 800m to 5000m into a faster one. This is Nike's plated distance racer, and it sits at the sharp end of the market at £200. A full-length carbon Flyplate runs under a forefoot Air Zoom unit, so instead of the dead, bare feel of an old-school spike you get a real pop off the plate and a hint of bounce as you load the front of the foot. At 135g it is featherlight, and the 19.9mm heel and 19.3mm forefoot stack keep you low and connected to the track. In our view this is a racing tool, not a session shoe. If you run anything from the 1500m to the 5000m and want the most return per stride at the line, the Victory 2 belongs on your shortlist. For pure distance reps the lighter, plate-free Nike Dragonfly 2 is the calmer option.

The Zoom Mamba 6 is Nike's distance and steeplechase spike, a running shoe built for the longer end of the track: 3000m steeple, 5000m and 10000m. Where a pure middle-distance spike like the Air Zoom Victory 2 is all aggression, the Mamba trades a little of that snap for a shoe you can hold form in when the laps stack up. The spike plate is firm and locks you onto your forefoot, so every stride turns over quickly and cleanly. At an RRP of £100 it is one of the more sensible buys in the distance-spike world, well under the price of the carbon super-spikes. In our view that is the point. This is a racer for club runners, students and county-level athletes who want a proper, fast track shoe without paying elite-tier money. It will not flatter a weak final 200m the way the priciest spikes do, but for honest distance racing it does the job and keeps doing it.