When you’ve spent £310 on a pair of running shoes you’d be forgiven for thinking that you’ll have an advantage when it comes to race day.

But for budding athletes who’ve purchased the latest Puma ‘super shoes’, their futuristic trainers may end up seeing them disqualified.

The Fast-RB Nitro Elite 2 shoes have been deemed to be not race-legal despite the German sportswear brand claiming they represent 'the next frontier of running'.

The trainers feature two large carbon plates that have been fused together to form a 'springboard'.

However, any records set in the shoes would be unofficial because World Athletics rules stipulate that trainers can only contain one carbon plate.

Romain Girard, Puma's vice president of innovation said: 'With the Fast-RB 2, we set out to take rule breaking to the next level. 

'By simplifying the design and giving our Nitrofoam technology more room to perform, we've created a shoe that delivers the highest energy return we've ever recorded in our testing, within an incredibly lightweight package.'

He added: 'Two years of innovation, lab testing and collaboration with athletes have gone into refining the experience, bringing together groundbreaking performance and the pure joy of running.'

The shoe, which Puma spent two years designing, has several clever features that are designed to boost speed and efficiency. 

The German brand's 'Nitrofoam Elite' cushioning absorbs energy, stores it briefly, and releases it at precisely the right moment.

'It doesn't matter whether you're a heel striker or a forefoot striker,' explained Matthias Hartmann, head of material engineering innovation footwear. 

'This foam technology offers an improvement for every type of runner.'

The upper of the shoe is crafted from 'Ultraweave' – Puma's top lightweight fabric. 

Stefano Favaro, creative director of Puma's teamsport division, said: 'Through Ultraweave, we are able to reduce apparel and kit weight and restrictions to improve performance.'

The outsole of the shoe is made from 'Pumagrip', which provides improved traction on all surfaces.

While many super shoes feature a carbon plate, Puma's offering has two, which are fused together to form a distinctive springboard. 

The idea is that, as you're running, this springboard provides dynamic propulsion, pushing you forwards.

The debate over super shoes first arose in 2019, when Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon distance in less than two hours.

However, his record was unofficial, because he was wearing the newly developed Nike Alphafly trainers.

Described as 'the shoe that broke running', by sports scientist Dr Ross Tucker, the US sportswear giant claimed that the shoes gave a 3.4 per cent increase in speed.

Across a marathon distance, that can translate into a difference of two to three minutes and make the difference between a fast race and a world record. 

The Alphaflys were promptly banned under guidelines brought in by World Athletics, but a new generation of shoes soon emerged to skirt these rules.

World Athletics now rules that no shoe can have a midsole that exceeds 40mm in height or contain more than one carbon–fibre plate.

As a result, shoe manufacturers have created new, race-legal versions with a 'stack height' that just scrapes beneath the legal limit. 

Earlier this year, Kenya's Sabastian Sawe made history by becoming the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours under race conditions – which he completed in the ADIZERO Adios Pro Evo 3, one of the lightest racing shoes ever created.

These shoes feature carbon-fibre plates and 'mattresses' of foam, which allow runners to move faster, while using less energy.  

But as the technology keeps improving, experts are concerned that super shoes could become a form of 'technological doping'.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Shaun Creighton, an Olympic long-distance runner turned sports lawyer at Moulis Legal, said: 'We should be clear that modern marathon super shoes are performance enhancing devices in a very real sense.

'I genuinely do not believe a sub-two-hour marathon would have been achieved without super shoes. 

'The regulatory task now is to keep tightening the technical boundaries just enough to preserve the marathon as a contest of human performance first, and of shoe design a distant second.'