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Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen is already looking ahead to 2026 with one of the boldest ambitions in track and field — to break world records in the 1500 meters, the mile, and the 5000 meters.

In an interview shared by Chris Chavez on X (formerly Twitter), Ingebrigtsen revealed his mindset and meticulous approach to choosing the perfect time and place to chase history.

“I hope to break the world records in the 1500 meters, the mile, and the 5000 meters. If I can do that, I’ll be happy. I’ll have to pick out some meets and dates where I have the best chance to make a good attempt,” he told Norway’s VG.

Ingebrigtsen and his wife are already mapping out potential race venues, with Monaco, Paris, Silesia, and Oslo among the leading candidates. Each of these meets has seen lightning-fast performances and could provide the ideal setting for record-breaking runs.

How he stacks up right now:

The world record for 1500 meters is 3:26.00, set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1998. Ingebrigtsen’s personal best is 3:26.73.

The world record for the mile is 3:43.13, also held by El Guerrouj from 1999. Ingebrigtsen’s personal best is 3:43.73.

The world record for the 5000 meters is 12:35.36, set by Joshua Cheptegei in 2020. Ingebrigtsen’s personal best is 12:48.45.

While Ingebrigtsen’s personal bests are already within striking distance of both El Guerrouj’s legendary middle-distance marks and Cheptegei’s long-distance record, breaking all three in one season would be unprecedented.

A Legacy in Motion

At just 25, Ingebrigtsen has already cemented himself as one of the most dominant and versatile athletes in modern track history. From his Olympic gold to multiple World and European Championship titles, his consistency and competitiveness have made him the face of a new generation of runners.

However, much of the 2025 season was disrupted by injury. An Achilles tendon issue forced him to withdraw from major meets and limited his racing calendar. Despite the setback, his ambition remains undimmed.

A sweep of these three world records would not only elevate his legacy but also redefine the limits of what’s possible across middle and long-distance running.

As he carefully plans his record attempts, the world will be watching — because when Jakob Ingebrigtsen sets his mind on something, history often follows.

On July 14, 1998, Moroccan middle-distance legend Hicham El Guerrouj delivered one of the most iconic performances in track and field history, running a stunning 3:26.00 in the 1500m at the Golden Gala meet in Rome—a world record that still stands 27 years later.

But according to El Guerrouj himself, that time could have been even faster with today’s advancements.

“With today’s technology—carbon-plated shoes, wavelight pacing, and modern training science—I could have run 3:24,” he recently told reporters.

That bold claim holds weight when you look at the splits from that historic night. El Guerrouj covered the final 400m in 53.03 seconds and blazed through the last 300m in 39.66 seconds—numbers that rival top 800m finishes.

What makes this feat even more remarkable is that it was accomplished in an era before super spikes, pacer lights, and the finely tuned sports science that athletes now rely on. His performance was built on years of focused training, tactical brilliance, and unmatched closing speed.

His time of 3:26.00 remains not only the fastest ever run over 1500m, but also the longest-standing men’s world record in any Olympic track distance between 800m and 10,000m.

With today’s stars like Jakob Ingebrigtsen inching closer to the mark, the debate continues: how much faster would El Guerrouj have gone in 2025 conditions?

For now, the record stands—and so does the legend of Hicham El Guerrouj.

On July 7, 1999, under the lights of Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj delivered a performance that remains one of the most iconic feats in track and field history. Racing against a world-class field, El Guerrouj clocked 3:43.13 for the mile—shattering his own previous best and establishing a world record that still stands 26 years later.

No man has run faster since.

In one of the most thrilling middle-distance races ever contested, Kenya’s Noah Ngeny pushed El Guerrouj all the way to the finish, crossing in 3:43.40—a time that remains the second-fastest mile in history. The duel produced two performances that remain unmatched, solidifying the race as perhaps the greatest mile ever run.

At the time, El Guerrouj was already recognized as the world’s premier miler, having come heartbreakingly close to Olympic gold in 1996 when he tripped with 400 meters to go. But his performance in Rome in 1999 left no doubt about his dominance. Paced perfectly through the opening laps, El Guerrouj accelerated with trademark elegance and blistering speed over the final 400 meters, crossing the line with history behind him.

His 3:43.13 replaced the previous world record of 3:44.39, set by Noureddine Morceli in 1993, and it has now stood longer than any other men’s outdoor mile world record in history.

Fast Facts:

• Date: July 7, 1999

• Location: Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy

• Winner: Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco) – 3:43.13 (World Record)

• Runner-Up: Noah Ngeny (Kenya) – 3:43.40 (Still #2 All-Time)

Legacy

El Guerrouj went on to win double Olympic gold in 2004 (1500m and 5000m), capping a storied career. But it’s the 1999 mile in Rome that may be his most enduring legacy. Despite super spikes, faster tracks, and new training philosophies, no one has yet managed to break 3:44 since that night.

As we mark 26 years since this historic performance, the record stands not just as a mark of physical excellence, but as a symbol of the enduring mystique of the mile—track and field’s most storied distance.

It’s no secret that Norwegian distance running star Jakob Ingebrigtsen is on a mission to etch his name into the history books by setting as many world records as possible in his career. On Thursday, rumours began swirling on social media that Ingebrigtsen was competing at the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday, marking what would be his debut at the distance. Should he decide to race, the world record of 57 minutes and 31 seconds could be in jeopardy.

On the Copenhagen Half Marathon start list, there is an unnamed athlete with bib number #2 who is the same age as Ingebrigtsen (23).

In a press conference ahead of Friday’s Diamond League Final in Brussels, Ingebrigtsen was asked if he had plans to compete in Copenhagen. “I’m focused on tomorrow’s race first, and what happens after that, I’m not sure,” the 23-year-old Norwegian responded, keeping the speculation alive. If the rumours prove true, he could be chasing another world record.

In tomorrow’s race in Brussels, Ingebrigtsen will be vying for his third-consecutive Diamond League title while trying to inch closer to Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1,500m world record of 3:26.00. “I believe it’s possible to break any world record,” Ingebrigtsen said in Thursday’s press conference. “For me, it’s about winning. It’s always exciting to race when there’s something bigger on the line. There’s always the chance of a world record, but likely not tomorrow.”

World record watch in Brussels

Meanwhile, the Diamond League Final could witness another world record in the men’s 800m, where Canadian Olympic silver medalist Marco Arop will face off against his rival, Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi. Both are the fastest 800m runners in the world this year, and they’ll be chasing David Rudisha’s world record time of 1:40.91. Arop will arrive in Brussels in record-setting shape, fresh off setting a North American record in the 1,000m at the Boris Hanžeković Memorial in Zagreb on Sept. 8. 

 

Three top middle-distance runners are set to challenge the long-standing 1500m world record at the Brussels Diamond League.

The men's 1500m world record set back in 1998 by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj will come under serious threat as three of the most promising middle-distance runners—Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse—are set to clash in the Diamond League final in Brussels this Saturday.

El Guerrouj’s incredible time of 3:26.00 has stood the test of time for 26 years with no one able to break the mark that many thought would be surpassed by now.

However, the trio of Olympic and World Championship medalists are all in peak form and ready to challenge this long-standing record making this one of the most highly anticipated 1500m races in recent memory.

The Tokyo Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, enters the race as the favorite. The Norwegian sensation boasts a personal best of 3:26.73, a mere 0.73 seconds shy of El Guerrouj’s historic mark.

Ingebrigtsen’s dominance over the distance has been unmatched this season, and he has made it clear that breaking the world record is on his radar.

“I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life.The world record is something that has always been in the back of my mind, and I believe this is the best chance I’ve had to go for it," said Ingebrigtsen.

Pushing him to the limit will be the American duo of Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse. Hocker, fresh off an Olympic season that saw him claim a gold medal in the 1500m is ranked seventh on the all-time list with a personal best of 3:26.73 matching Ingebrigtsen’s time.

Hocker’s confidence has been building all season, and the 23-year-old has openly expressed his desire to break into history.

“I hope to take a stab at the world record, whether it’s this season or next year,” said Hocker.

“But right now, I’m focused on leaving a lasting legacy. The Olympic gold was the first goal, and now it’s time to chase something even bigger.”

Yared Nuguse, ranked ninth on the all-time list, is another strong contender. Nuguse has steadily risen through the ranks with a personal best of 3:27.80 and a season-best of 3:27.80 as well.

The 25-year-old has proven himself capable of competing against the best in the world and could be poised to surprise both Hocker and Ingebrigtsen in Brussels.

The race, however, will be missing one key figure in Josh Kerr, the British 1500m specialist who recently confessed that the mental toll of the season has led him to opt out of the final. Kerr’s absence opens the door for a fascinating showdown between Ingebrigtsen, Hocker, and Nuguse.

In addition to the leading trio, the race will feature strong competition from the likes of Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot, a rising star who has posted a season-best of 3:28.28, and Timothy Cheruiyot, the former World Champion.

France’s Azzedine Habz and Great Britain’s Elliot Giles will also be in the mix, having both posted times in the 3:29 range this season.

El Guerrouj’s record-breaking performance in 1998 was the first time a runner had managed to average under 55 seconds per lap for the 1500m.

With athletes now regularly running sub-3:30 times, the level of competition has never been higher. Whether it’s tactical brilliance, pure speed, or a combination of both, this race has all the ingredients to produce fireworks on the track.

Cole Hocker is aiming to break the 1500m record after Olympic gold and has revealed his plans for achieving this historic feat.

American middle-distance runner Cole Hocker has his sights firmly set on breaking the world record in the 1500 meters a mark held by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj for over two decades.

Fresh off a stunning Olympic gold medal victory in Paris, where he beat his personal best by almost three seconds, Hocker is not just basking in the glory of the moment.

At 23 years old, Hocker's remarkable achievement at the Paris Olympics was a significant upset.

The University of Oregon alum surged from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to clinch the gold in an Olympic record time of 3 minutes, 27.65 seconds.

This victory marked the first U.S. win in the metric mile since Matt Centrowitz in 2016. He outran favorites Jakob Ingebrigsten and Josh Kerr, leaving Ingebrigtsen, who led for the majority of the race, in fourth place.

Before his next race at the Luassane Diamond League Hocker expressed his ambitions to push the boundaries even further.

“Two weeks ago I was a 3:30 guy, and that’s a long way from 3:26, and you have to run 3:25 to get the world record, so I’m trying to figure that out. I’ve run 3:27 one time and I want to get comfortable running that," he stated during the pre-race press conference.

Hocker acknowledges that his strength lies in his tactical approach to racing.

"I am a racer, and all my best races come from racing them tactically, so that might just be something I have to learn. I’ve been in races that are set up fast and have done well, but my bread and butter right now is racing," he explained.

“I hope to take a stab at that whether it’s this season or next year, but now I have another goal to set my mind to. It was always Olympic gold, and now I’ve checked that box. I’m really concerned with establishing myself as one of the greatest runners in history, so logically that would be the next step,” he noted.

The current world record of 3:26.00 set by El Guerrouj has stood unchallenged since 1998.

Lowering this record will require not just physical excellence but meticulous planning and preparation.

Knowing the average pace can help you set new goals.

The best way to find your average running speed is by tracking your mile pace.

For example, say you go out for a three-mile race. You might start off running fast because of an adrenaline rush, then slow down once you realize you’re running too hard. But toward the end, when the finish is in sight you might catch a second wind and pick up speed again. This all results in different mile times.

Your average mile time, which will be the sum of all your mile times divided by the number of miles completed, may look different than each individual mile. The more you train, not only will your average mile pace drop, but each individual mile time will likely become closer in time to the others.

That’s why tracking your average mile time is a great way to monitor your progress. Plus, when you reach a new barrier—like the first time you run faster than a 10-minute mile, for example—it allows you to search out new goals in your running journey and also scope out your competition.

How long does it take to run a mile on average?

Based on real-life data from all public uploads to Strava from August 1 2022 to July 30 2023, the average mile time across the globe is 10 minutes and 25 seconds (10:25). That number adjusts based on gender: 10:02 for men and 11:17 for women. In the U.S., the average running speed is 9:54 and breaks down to a 9:32 mile pace for U.S. men and 10:37 for U.S. women.

These paces have changed since 2018 when the average global mile pace hit 9:48 and U.S. pace averaged 9:44.

Don’t fret if your current average time is a little off from those marks. Keep in mind that, while sizable, the dedicated Strava community doesn’t represent the entire running community.

What factors affect average running speed?

The following factors play a big role in every runner’s mile speed:

Gender

Age

Weather/wind

Nutrition and hydration

Injuries

Height

Weight

Terrain

The list could go on. Even what you think about or your mindset can affect how fast you run, and that’s under your control. Other factors, however—such as height and age—are things you obviously can’t change.

Also, according to recent number crunching at Runner’s World, based on data from platforms like MapMyRun, even the type of year you’re having has an effect on one’s average mile time and pace. From mid-April to mid-September—during the start and midpoint of the coronavirus pandemic—the average mile pace recorded was 8.5 percent slower compared with the same range in 2019, which the MapMyRun team attributes to a new or returning runner effect.

When it comes to age, one data analysis performed in 2010 and based on 10,000 U.S. runners who completed a 5K showed the average minutes per mile for runners of different ages. The average overall was 11:47 per mile. Men in the 16- to 19-year-old age range finished the run with an average pace of 9:34; women in the same age group finished in 12:09. The numbers gradually increased as the age groups got older.

In most cases, though, the gaps between the finishing times of the different age groups weren’t drastic. And you might not necessarily get slower with age. As Runner’s World has reported, many pro runners and average runners peak in their 30s, and even runners in their 70s can keep getting better with age.

Because of the many variables associated with running pace, it can be difficult to establish an across-the-board average running speed.

How fast should you run a race?

If you’re looking to find out what your average running pace should be to hit a specific time goal in a race, you’re in luck. Our Runner’s World Pace Charts (in both minutes per mile and kilometer) show what time a given pace will produce for six common race distances: 5K, 5 miles, 10K, 10 miles, half marathon, and marathon. As an example in the chart below, if you want to run under 1 hour and 45 minutes for a 10-mile race, you’d need to have an average pace of 10 minutes and 29 seconds per mile to accomplish your goal.

Use our charts as a reference point after you start training so you can know what average pace is necessary (and realistic) for your upcoming goal race.

How can you boost your average running speed?

If you want your average running pace to be faster, there are several steps you can take to improve, like figuring out how to breathe properly and mixing up your types of runs. You should also recognize the importance of nutrition and hydration.

Adopt a holistic approach to your training, doing regular conditioning workouts to improve your strength and flexibility in addition to running, as a stronger, mobile body can help you run faster and avoid injury.

What’s the fastest ever mile speed?

The fastest mile ever recorded was set by Hicham El Guerrouj, a Moroccan runner who ran a mile in 3:43.13 in 1999. Guerrouj was 24 years old at the time.

For women, the fastest mile ever was run by Faith Kipyegon, which she snagged just this month, with a time of 4:07.64.

If you’re looking for the fastest average running paces over the course of 26.2 miles, look no further than the world record holders in the marathon—Eliud Kipchoge (4:37.2 per mile) and Brigid Kosgei (5:06.8 per mile).

And just for fun, if Usain Bolt were to ever keep his jaw-dropping sprint going for a full mile at his peak ability, the Jamaican’s top speed in 2009 during his 9.58 world record 100-meter dash would have put him just over 27 miles per hour.

What we can learn from the world’s greatest distance runner of all-time while he’s still in his prime

Eliud Kipchoge has expanded the universe of what’s humanly possible in the marathon, and he will forever remain a legend in the sport of long-distance running.

Not only for himself, but especially for those who have come after him. That includes everyone, both elite and recreational runners, who are preparing a marathon this fall or some distant point in the future. His current 2:01:09 world record and his barrier-breaking 1:59:40 time-trial effort in 2019 are legendary feats, both for the current generation of runners and for all time.

The 38-year-old Kenyan marathoner is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, but time waits for no one, and especially not a long-distance runner. Like all elite athletes, his time at the top is limited, but fortunately, there is still time to immerse in the inspirational examples he’s providing.

Kipchoge recently announced he’ll return to the Berlin Marathon on September 24, where, last year, he won the race for the fourth time and lowered the world record for the second time. It is most likely what will be the beginning of a grand denouement as he goes for another gold medal at the 2024 Olympics next summer in Paris.

Given that he won his first global medal in the City of Light—when, at the age of 18, he outran Moroccan legend Hicham El Guerrouj and Ethiopian legend-in-the-making Kenenisa Bekele to win the 5,000-meter run at the 2003 world championships—it would certainly be one of the greatest stories ever told if he could win the Olympic marathon there next year when he’s nearly 40.

Certainly he’ll run a few more races after the Olympics—and maybe through the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles—but, realistically, it is the start of a farewell tour for a runner who will never be forgotten.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not at all writing Kipchoge off. In fact, I am excited to see him run in Berlin and can’t wait to watch next year’s Olympic marathon unfold. But just as we’ve watched Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Shalane Flanagan, Usain Bolt, Allyson Felix, and other elite athletes succumb to the sunsetting of their peak performance level, so too will Kipchoge eventually suffer the same fate.

What I’m saying here is that we still have time to watch and appreciate Kipchoge eloquently working his magic and continue to be inspired in our own running and other pursuits in life. Remember how we marveled at Michael Jordan’s greatest in “The Last Dance” more than 20 years after his heyday? This is the start of the last dance for Kipchoge, who, like Jordan, is much, much more than a generational talent; he’s an all-time great whose legacy will transcend time.

Running has seen many extraordinary stars in the past 50 years who have become iconic figures— Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Ted Corbitt, Carl Lewis, Steve Jones, Paul Tergat,  Catherine Ndereba, Paula Radcliffe, Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Mary Keitany, Brigid Kosgei, and Kilian Jornet, to name a few—but none have come close to the body of work and global influence of Kipchoge.

Not only is Kipchoge one of the first African athletes to become a household name and truly command a global audience, but he’s done more than other running champions because of he’s been able to take advantage of this advanced age of digital media to deliberately push positive messages and inspiring content to anyone who is willing to receive it.

Kipchoge has won two Olympic gold medals, set two world records, and won 17 of the 19 marathons he entered, but he’s so much less about the stats and bling and more sharing—to runners and non-runners alike—that “no human is limited” and also that, despite our differences, we’re all human beings faced with a lot of the same challenges in life and, ultimately, hard work and kindness are what put us on the path to success.

How can an average runner who works a nine-to-five job and juggles dozens of other things in daily life be inspired by an elite aerobic machine like Kipchoge?

He is supremely talented, no doubt, but many elite runners have a similar aerobic capacity to allow them to compete on the world stage. What Kipchoge uniquely possesses—and why he’s become the greatest of all-time—is the awareness and ability to be relentless in his pursuit of excellence, and the presence and good will of how beneficial it is to share it.

If you haven’t been following Kipchoge or heard him speak at press conferences or sponsor events, he’s full of genuine wisdom and encouragement that can inspire you in your own  running or challenging situation in life. His words come across much more powerfully than most other elite athletes or run-of-the-mill social media influencers, not only because he’s achieved at a higher level than anyone ever has, but because of his genuine interest in sharing the notion that it’s the simplest values—discipline, hard work, consistency, and selflessness—that make the difference in any endeavor.

This is not a suggestion to idolize Kipchoge, but instead to apply his wisdom and determination into the things that challenge you.

“If you want to break through, your mind should be able to control your body. Your mind should be a part of your fitness.”

“Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.”

“If you believe in something and put it in your mind and heart, it can be realized.”

“The best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is today.”

Those are among the many simple messages that Kipchoge has lived by, but he also openly professess to giving himself grace to take time for mental and physical rest and recovery. It’s a simple recipe to follow, if you’re chasing your first or fastest marathon, or any tall task in life.

Kipchoge seems to defy age, but his sixth-place finish in the Boston Marathon in April proved he’s human. As much as it was painful to watch him falter, it was oddly refreshing and relatable to see him be something less than exceptional, and especially now that he’s tuning up for Berlin. He has nothing left to prove—to himself, to runners, to the world—but he’s bound to keep doing so just by following the same simple, undaunted regimen he always has.

 

There will be other young runners who will rise and run faster than Kipchoge and probably very soon. Fellow Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum—who has run  2:01:53 (Valencia) and 2:01:25 (London) in his first two marathons since December—seems to be next in line for Kipchoge’s throne of the world’s greatest runner. But even after that happens, Kipchoge’s name will go down in history alongside the likes of Paavo Nurmi, Abebe Bikila, Emil Zátopek, Grete Waitz, Shorter and Samuelson because of how he changed running and how he gave us a lens to view running without limits.

Berlin is definitely not the end of Kipchoge’s amazing career  as the world’s greatest long-distance runner. I fully expect him to win again in an unfathomable time. But the sunset is imminent and, no matter if you are or have ever been an aspiring elite athlete at any level, a committed recreational runner, or just an occasional jogger trying to reap the fruits of consistent exercise, his example is still very tangible and something to behold.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Lamecha Girma both made history earlier this month in Paris, where they set a world two-mile best and a world 3000m steeplechase record, respectively. Now they have the chance to push each other to fast 1500m performances when they return to Wanda Diamond League action in Lausanne on Friday (30).

Norway’s Ingebrigtsen, who broke the world indoor 1500m record by running 3:30.60 in Lievin in February, clocked 7:54.10 in Paris to improve Daniel Komen’s world best for two miles. Despite still having that race in his legs, the 22-year-old improved his own European 1500m record to 3:27.95 in Oslo six days later – a time that places him sixth on the world all-time list.

Although the world record had not been his aim in Oslo, Lausanne’s Athletissima gives Ingebrigtsen another opportunity to take further strides toward Hicham El Guerrouj’s almost 25-year-old world record of 3:26.00.

“I 100% have more left in me,” Ingebrigtsen said after his performance in Oslo. “I just have to keep focused on each race ahead in the build-up to Budapest (World Championships), where it really matters.”

Girma will hope to be up there with him. The Ethiopian 22-year-old stormed to a time of 7:52.11 for his specialism in Paris, taking 1.52 seconds off the world 3000m steeplechase record set by Said Saeed Shaheen in 2004, and then turned his attention to attacking the Ethiopian 1500m record of 3:29.91 at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday (27). He still looked like he had plenty left in the closing stages but having to run wide down the home straight, he focused on the win, running a PB of 3:33.15 that he will aim to improve again in Lausanne.

It will be the first time that Ingebrigtsen and Girma have clashed in any discipline.

In Oslo, Ingebrigtsen led the first eight men under 3:30 for the first time in history, and this time the line-up includes two other men who have dipped under that barrier so far in their careers: Britain’s Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr and Australia’s Stewart McSweyn. They are joined on the entry list by Ethiopia’s Teddese Lemi, New Zealand’s Sam Tanner and Britain’s Neil Gourley.

In the 5000m – the discipline in which Ingebrigtsen won world gold last year after his 1500m silver – Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei will take on Olympic 10,000m gold medallist Selemon Barega, world 5km record-holder Berihu Aregawi, Telahun Haile Bekele, Birhanu Balew and their fellow sub-13:00 runner Muktar Edris.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, world U20 silver medallist Sembo Almayew is back on the track after her world-leading PB performance of 9:00.71 to win in Florence. The 2021 world U20 gold medallist, Jackline Chepkoech, was second on that occasion and is also racing, along with world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech and world bronze medallist Mekides Abebe.

The world leader also heads the entries in the women’s 800m, where world and Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson – who improved her British record to 1:55.77 to win in Paris – will look to make another statement as she renews her rivalry with Kenya’s Mary Moraa.

World bronze medallist Moraa, who won Commonwealth Games and Diamond League titles ahead of Hodgkinson last year, has run a best of 1:58.72 so far this season and the strong field also features Habitam Alemu, Noelie Yarigo, Jemma Reekie, Catriona Bisset, Natoya Goule and Switzerland's Audrey Werro, who recently ran a world U20 1000m record of 2:34.89 in Nice.

Eliud Kipchoge is widely regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time has set himself many challenges in his dazzling career, and remains insatiable despite his two Olympic titles, his world record of 2:01:09 in Berlin in 2022 and an incredible 15 wins in 18 marathons he has entered.

He broke the mythical two-hour barrier over the 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometre) distance in Vienna in 2019, with a time of 1:59:40, but the feat was not recognised as an official world record as it was not in open competition.

Victory has eluded the 38-year-old in the Boston and New York marathons, which if he won would make him the first man to have all six major titles under his belt.

"The priority now is to focus on the Olympics and win a third time. The other (challenges) will come later," Kipchoge says in an interview with AFP at the renowned Kaptagat training camp in Kenya's Rift Valley.

His two Olympic marathon gold medals in 2016 and 2021 put him at level pegging with Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) and Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany (1976, 1980).

A third gold at the Paris Olympics in 2024 would make Kipchoge the undisputed marathon giant at the Games, and bring him a victory steeped in symbolism.

The French capital was the city where he won his first international crown in 2003 at the age of 18, clinching the 5,000 metres world championship title ahead of sporting legends Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco and Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele.

However, Kipchoge does not rule out giving up on his other goals.

"If time comes in to hang the racing shoes, I will say bye to other big things in sport."

'I know myself'

Sitting on a shaded bench in the Kaptagat camp where he has lived and trained for several months a year for 20 years, Kipchoge looks back on his poor showing in Boston on April 17, where he dropped from the lead group in the 30th kilometre and ended up finishing sixth.

This rare failure dampened his spirits.

"I'm trying to forget what has happened in Boston. It's caught in my mind... but I believe that what has passed has passed."

With his lifelong coach Patrick Sang, he has analysed the reasons for his disappointing performance, saying "it's mostly the hamstring".

He brushes aside concerns about his difficulties on hilly courses such as Boston and New York and which will also confront him in Paris.

"It is not really a concern, but I respect everybody's thoughts," he says. "I think it was a bad day and every day is a different day. I'm looking forward for next year.

"Everybody can write anything, you have no control. But I know myself."

'Want to be an inspiration'

Kipchoge is now preparing for his final marathon of the year.

"I'm doing well. My training is going on in a good way," he says.

But he has not yet disclosed which event it will be — Berlin on September 24, Chicago on October 8 or New York on November 5.

"At the end of July, I will know where to go."

He is following his usual training programme, eating up more than 200 kilometres a week on the red dirt tracks of Kaptagat forest, 2,400 metres above sea level.

Among his 20-odd training partners at the camp at the time of the AFP interview were Kenya's new 1,500m and 5,000m world record holder Faith Kipyegon and two-time New York marathon winner Geoffrey Kamworor.

As the respected dean of Kenyan athletics, Kipchoge is happy to see the emergence of 23-year-old compatriot Kelvin Kiptum, who won the London Marathon in April in 2:01:25, the second fastest time in history and just 16 seconds away from his own world record.

"I want to be an inspiration and I trust my breaking the world record twice is an inspiration to many young people. I trust they will want more and even beat my records."

'Prioritise drugs tests'

But in a country where athletics has become tainted by large-scale drug use, Kipchoge laments that "many people are going into shortcuts to advance".

"I think doping is there... It's all more about getting rich."

Kipchoge says the authorities should prioritise testing for performance-enhancing substances, saying it was much more important than education "because everybody who is doing doping knows what is going on".

"Just pump everything in testing, put testing as a first priority and all will be well," he says.

"The moment we prioritise testing and we register those who are handling the athletes across the country, we have the right data to know who is who in the whole country.

"But if we really ignore the people who are working with athletes and athletes themselves, then we are in danger."

At the Paris Diamond League last week, the incredible Norwegian athlete and Olympic 1,500m champion  Jakob Ingebrigtsen achieved a remarkable two-mile world best. On Thursday evening (afternoon for viewers in North America), the 22-year-old superstar will be competing in his home country, aiming to challenge his national record of 3:28.32 at the Oslo Diamond League.

Jakob’s WR bid

Ingebrigtsen headlines a deep men’s 1,500m field, featuring the silver and bronze medallists from Tokyo 2020, Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot and Josh Kerr of Great Britain. Other notable athletes are American Yared Nuguse and Mohamed Katir, who came off a Spanish national record performance over 5,000m in Florence two weeks ago, taking the win in 12:50.79. 

During the pre-race press conference, Ingebrigtsen put his confidence on display and said he’s eager to chase a personal best and even take a shot at Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1,500m world record of 3:26.00 “If I break the world record Thursday, I deserve a statue,” said Ingebrigtsen. The Bislett Games meet director responded: “If you do it, I’ll personally set up a statue outside Bislett [Stadium].”

Although there has been a lot of world record talk from Ingebrigtsen and the media, the Wavelight pace in the 1,500m will be set to the meeting record of 3:29.12, going through 800m in 1:52 and the first kilometre in 2:19. Ingebrigtsen will have to close the final 500m in 66 seconds and a sub-53-second final lap if he hopes to take down the world record. 

Canadians in Oslo

Two prominent Canadian athletes are competing at Oslo Diamond League Thursday. Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse looks to get his season back on track in the men’s 200m. The last year hasn’t been easy for De Grasse, changing coaches, battling injury and a slow start to the 2023 season. In his first three 200m race of the season, he has struggled to dip under the world championship standard mark of 20.24 seconds, a time he has frequently sailed under over the last two seasons. In his first Diamond League race in Doha on May 5, his turnover in the final 70 metres wasn’t there, and he faded to sixth in 20.35. It’s been three weeks since his last race, and he will come into Oslo as one of the favourites on paper, having the second-fastest personal best in the field after the young American, Erriyon Knighton.

Canadian mile and 1,500m record holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford had a successful outing in her Diamond League return in Florence two weeks ago. After a full year off due to injury, the 27-year-old Olympic finalist ran to a season’s best 4:03.64 over 1,500m. She will come into the Oslo Diamond League as the top-ranked woman in the mile event. This race in Oslo should be more tactical and better suited for DeBues-Stafford’s racing style than the 1,500m in Florence, which resulted in a new world record for Faith Kipyegon. 

Two other athletes who will be a tough test for DeBues-Stafford are Jessica Hull, who recently set an Australian record of 3:57.29 in Florence, and Ethiopian rising star Birke Haylom, who ran a giant personal best of 3:57.66 for third place at the Rabat Diamond League. DeBues-Stafford’s mile best is 4:17.87 from Monaco Diamond League in 2019, but any result under 4:23 for her would be a step in the right direction as she continues to prepare for the 2023 World Athletics Championships later this summer. 

Jakob Ingebrigtsen made history on Friday in Paris, running 7:54.10 in the two mile to break Daniel Komen’s mark that had stood since 1997. 

Though the event isn’t frequently run, Komen’s time of 7:58.61 had taken on a mythical quality because of its longevity. 

The distance was a perfect combination for Ingebrigtsen who has global gold medals in the 1500m and 5000m. 

On Friday, the Norwegian was accompanied by two rabbits from the start and quickly separated himself from the rest of the pack. Ingebrigtsen never wavered from the pace, following the pacers through splits of 2:29.07 for 1000m and 4:56.95 for 2000m.

With 400 meters remaining, Ingebrigtsen only needed a 60-second close to get the record. He had much more to give than that, ripping off a 56-second 400m to obliterate the old mark. 

En route, Ingebrigtsen passed 3000m in 7:24.07. That’s the third fastest time in history behind Komen and Hicham El Guerrouj

The race was just the second of Ingebrigtsen’s outdoor campaign. He opened his season with a victory in the Rabat Diamond League in 3:32.59. 

Ingebrigtsen also owns the fastest time in history in the indoor 1500m, a 3:30.60 from Lievin. 

Yared Nuguse ran the second-fastest indoor mile in history as three national records fell or were equalled in a thrilling men’s Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games. Alicia Monson also set an area record in the 3000m, while Abby Steiner claimed a US record in the 300m at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in New York on Saturday (11).

In the infield, Ryan Crouser demonstrated his effective new shot put technique and Katie Moon returned to her winning ways in the pole vault before a roaring crowd that also cheered runners in competitions from U8 through high school and college.

As always, the men’s Wanamaker mile culminated the meeting, and Nuguse ran away with the race in a world-leading 3:47.38 to claim his second area record of the season to go along with the 3000m.

Pace setter Erik Sowinski brought the runners through half way in 1:52.99 – just as he had been asked – with Nuguse and training mates Mario Garcia Romo and Olli Hoare in the lead group. But Nuguse turned on the jets and covered the final quarter of the race in 54.23, breaking the meeting record, facility record, and crushing Bernard Lagat’s 15-year-old US indoor record of 3:49.98.

“Running that race the way we did,” Nuguse said, “all three of us right there up for the first half of the race, I felt good knowing I had my closest guys having my back. And then that last part was give it everything I had and I was able to close with something crazy and get it.”

Great Britain’s Neil Gourley ran a PB of 3:49.46 to move to sixth on the world indoor all-time list, and Hoare equalled the Oceanian record with 3:50.83. New Zealand’s Sam Tanner ran a PB of 3:51.70, while Romo’s 3:51.79 was a Spanish record.

Yuguse has now eclipsed Hicham El Guerrouj on the all-time list; only Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha has run faster, clocking 3:47.01 in 2019.

“I’m always excited to see what else I can do next,” Nuguse said. “There was definitely a nice confidence boost. After that 3000m (where he broke the US record), I was feeling pretty confident already, but to do this in the event that I love the most and the one that I feel like I’m going for at the world championships, that makes me feel even better.”

Laura Muir won the women’s Wanamaker Mile in 4:20.15, followed by Josette Andrews in 4.20.88. Muir, the Olympic silver medallist, led for most of the race, then Andrews hit the front with two laps to go. But the Briton kicked again on the final lap and went on to win comfortably.

Sprint sensations

World record-holder Christian Coleman took a bow after winning the men’s 60m in a season’s best of 6.47. “I feel like this is what I do best and I came to put on a show,” he said.

Noah Lyles was charged with a false start and ran the race under protest, clocking 6.53, although the time would not count. Lyles, the US record-holder in the 200m outdoors, admitted a little bit of movement, but said his feet never left the pad. “I got a time that I’m very happy to see,” Lyles said. “Everybody knows I’m just here to play around. I’m not a 60-metre runner, but if I can take some heads, I’m going to do it.”

Jamaica’s Travis Williams was awarded second place with a PB of 6.59, followed by Josephus Lyles, Noah’s younger brother, also with a PB of 6.59. Williams edged Lyles by .003.

Aleia Hobbs set an Armory record of 7.04 to win her fourth straight competition, having clocked a world-leading 6.98 at the end of January. Teenager Tamari Davis was second in a PB of 7.08, followed by Marybeth Sant-Price in 7.11, Mikiah Brisco at 7.13 and 17-year-old Shawnti Jackson in 7.16.

“I don’t think my start was as good as it’s been, but I was patient,” Hobbs said.

In only her second 300m, Steiner broke the US record, clocking 35.54 to easily go under Quanera Hayes’ time of 35.71 from 2017. Steiner held off a spirited challenge from Brittany Brown, who ran 36.13.

“It’s definitely one of those races I think you learn a little bit about every time you run it,” said Steiner, who set the collegiate record in her first race.

Although this 300m is her last of the season, she still wants the world record of 35.45, shared by Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Irina Privalova. “I clean up my start a little bit,” Steiner said, “and I think it’s there.”

World indoor champion Jereem Richards of Trinidad & Tobago ran a season’s best of 45.84 to avenge the previous week’s loss to  Noah Williams, who clocked 46.20. In Boston, they were separated by only .004 as both ran 45.88.

Devynne Charlton won the women’s 60m hurdles in 7.91, while Tonea Marshall ran a season’s best of 7.94 and Sharika Nelvis clocked 7.96 to edge Olympic silver medallist Nia Ali in 7.97.

 

At a masters athletics meet in Western Australia on Thursday, Perth runner David Carr set a men’s 90+ 1,500m world record (the metric mile) of 7:32.95, breaking the previous record by five seconds. Carr’s world record-setting time equates to a speed of 12 km/h and a pace of around five minutes per kilometre.

Carr, who celebrated his 90th birthday in June, has now broken five 90+ world records this summer: the 1,500m, 3,000m (16:20.96), 5,000m (29:47.83), 10,000m (62:48.93) and 2,000m steeplechase (12:50.43).

The previous 1,500m record, of 7:37.05, was held by Toshio Kamehama of Japan, set at the Japan Masters Championships in 2015.

According to an online age-graded running calculator, Carr’s graded time is faster than Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1,500m world record of 3:26.00. His age-graded result would be 3:16.00, which is remarkable.

Carr has been involved with athletics since 1948; he competed during his service in the Australian Navy and his time as a teacher. In 1974, he began competing in the masters division and went to his first Masters World Championship in 1980, since then he has won a healthy number of gold medals in middle distance events.

The Australian has had several attempts at the 90+ 400m and 800m record, but has come up short. Both the 400m and 800m 90+ records are held by Canada’s Earl Fee, (400m – 1:29.15, 800m – 3:34.93).

On Tuesday, the Ethiopian Athletics Federation announced its team for the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene. If this sounds familiar, that’s because Ethiopia already named its team on June 13…and then updated it four days later to sub in Dawit Seyaum after she ran 14:25 to win the Oslo Diamond League.

Tuesday’s list — which the federation says is the final roster (it pretty much has to be, since entries were due to World Athletics on Monday) — features even more changes, which will have a major impact on Worlds, which begin on July 15 at Hayward Field. Remember, at World Indoor Championships earlier this year in Belgrade, Ethiopian athletes won eight of the 12 available medals across the 1500 and 3000 meters — including all four golds and a 1-2-3 sweep in the women’s 1500. The country is a distance powerhouse.

Here is the full roster, with changes, followed by some analysis on what it all means.

Men’s 800 (no changes)Ermiyas GirmaTolosa Bodena

Women’s 800Habitam AlemuDiribe WeltejiHirut Meshesha (1:58.54 sb) replacing Freweyni Hailu (1:59.39 sb)

Men’s 1500Samuel TeferaTaddese Lemi (3:37.06 sb) replacing Melese Nberet (no races this year)Samuel Abate

Women’s 1500Gudaf Tsegay (3:54.21 sb) replacing Axumawit Embaye (3:58.80 sb)Freweyni Hailu (3:58.18 sb, 4th in Olympics) replacing Ayal Dagnachew (3:59.87 sb)Hirut Meshesha

Men’s 3000 steeple (no changes)Lamecha GirmaHailemariyam AmareGetnet Wale

Women’s 3000 steepleMekides AbebeWorkua GetachewSimbo Alemayehu (9:09.17 sb at age 18) replacing Zerfe Wondemagegn (9:27.75 sb)

Men’s 5,000Muktar EdrisBerihu AregawiYomif KejelchaSelemon Barega replacing Telahun Bekele

Women’s 5,000Ejgayehu TayeLetesenbet Gidey (14:24.59 sb) replacing Gudaf Tsegay (14:26.69 sb)Dawit Seyaum (14:25.84 sb) replacing Fantu Worku (14:47.37 sb)

Men’s 10,000Selemon BaregaTadese WorkuBerihu Aregawi (26:46.13 sb) replacing Milkesa Mengesha (27:00.24 sb)

Women’s 10,000Letesenbet GideyEjgayehu Taye (30:44.68 sb) replacing Girmawit Gebrzihair (30:47.72 sb)Bosena Mulate

Men’s marathonLelisa DesisaTamirat TolaMosinet GeremewSeifu Tura

Women’s marathonGotytom GebreslaseAbabel YeshanehAshete Bekere

Quick Takes

1) Ethiopia’s team just got A LOT stronger and Ethiopia went from no one doubling to a lot of doublers

In recent years, Ethiopia has been reluctant to allow its stars to double at global championships. Last year in Tokyo, Ethiopia had two huge 5,000m medal threats in Selemon Barega (Olympic 10,000 champ) and Berihu Aregawi (the 10,000 4th placer who would go on to win the Diamond League 5,000 title) but neglected to enter either in the 5,000 meters. Of the three men Ethiopia did enter, two failed to even make the final and the third, Milkesa Mengesha, wound up 10th.

The federation took criticism after that misstep and it looked as if it would double down in 2022 as the initial team named in June featured no doublers. But the final squad features five athletes double-entered: World Indoor bronze medalist Hirut Meshesha (800/1500) and Ejgayehu Taye (14:12 pb, #5 woman all-time), Letesenbet Gidey (women’s 5k/10k world record holder), Barega and Aregawi, all of whom are running the 5,000 and 10,000.

2) The meet is more interesting with the Ethiopians doubling; the men’s 5,000 final is now totally stacked

The World Championships are meant to be about the best against the best. When a world final is over, we don’t want to be asking ourselves, “What would have happened if Athlete X was in the race?” But that’s absolutely what we were thinking after the 2021 Olympic 5000 final without Barega. And it’s been an issue for a lot longer than that. Only once in his career did Haile Gebrselassie attempt the 5,000/10,000 double at a global champs (1993), in part because there were still prelims in the 10,000 in those days and in part because he didn’t want to tire himself for the lucrative post-championship meets in Europe.

That shouldn’t be an issue in 2022 (and if it is, it won’t have been the fault of the Ethiopian federation) as the distance finals are much stronger with Taye, Gidey, Barega, and Aregawi doubling up. The men’s 5,000 could be an all-timer. Not only do you have Olympic 5,000 champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, but now we have Olympic 10,000 champ Barega stepping down and Olympic 1500 champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen stepping up. It’s reminiscent of one of the most famous races in track history, the 2003 World Championship 5,000 final in Paris which featured Hicham El Guerrouj stepping up from the 1500 and Kenenisa Bekele stepping down from the 10,000 only for both of them to be defeated by an 18-year-old Eliud Kipchoge.

Having Aregawi in the 10,000 makes for a stronger race as well as he was 3rd at the Ethiopian trials in that event and set a Diamond League record for margin for victory when he ran 12:50 to win the Pre Classic 5,000 by 16 seconds.

3) Gudaf Tsegay’s medal odds went up but her gold medal odds went down

Tsegay is pretty clearly the #2 women’s 1500 runner in the world. She won World Indoors by 5+ seconds and is 3+ seconds faster than the #3 1500 woman in the world right now. But she’s also not close to double Olympic champ Faith Kipyegon, who beat her convincingly at Pre, 3:52.59 to 3:54.21.

Initially, Tsegay was entered in the 5,000 at Worlds (she ran the 5,000 only at the Olympics last year, earning the bronze medal) and while there’s no overwhelming favorite in that event like Kipyegon (well at least until we see how Sifan Hassan looks this weekend), Tsegay is not as good at the 5,000 as the 1500 (as evidenced by her defeat to countrywoman Dawit Seyaum in the 5,000 in Oslo). By running the 1500, Tsegay has a better shot at a medal but her odds at gold are worse.

4) It just got a WHOLE LOT harder for the Americans to medal

An American medal in the women’s 5,000 or 10,000 was already unlikely, so the Ethiopian roster changes didn’t make a huge impact on the chances of Karissa Schweizer or Elise Cranny. But the medal odds of Grant Fisher, who finished 5th in the Olympic 10,000 last year, are way lower today than they were a week ago (a statement also true for his US teammates Woody Kincaid and Joe Klecker).

Last Wednesday, two of the four men who finished ahead of Fisher in the 10,000 in Tokyo were major question marks. Bronze medalist Jacob Kiplimo hadn’t raced on the track all year, while Aregawi, the 4th placer, was named to Ethiopia’s team in the 5,000 only. Since then, Kiplimo ran 7:29 for 3,000 in Stockholm to show he’s very fit right now and Aregawi was added to Ethiopia’s 10,000 squad. Plus Barega was added to the 5,000.

Those developments will make it significantly harder for Fisher (or any American man in the 5,000 or 10,000) to earn a medal. That said, if an American can somehow medal, it will go down as a monumental achievement since no one can accuse these fields of being watered down.

Sinclaire Johnson‘s medal hopes in the 1500 also took a BIG hit. With Tsegay now in the 1500, two medals seem to be spoken for and new addition Freweyni Hailu, who was 4th in the Olympics last year at age 20, is better than Ayal Dagnachew (who is no slouch herself, world junior 800 champ last year and 3:59 this year).

5) Ethiopia needs to figure out a better way to do this

One of the most important jobs an athletics federation has is selecting national teams. And for countries that don’t use a “top 3 at the trials” model — which is to say, every country except for the US — things can get prickly as someone, inevitably, is going to be upset they’re missing out on the team.

There are ways to limit the outrage. The simplest solution is the one USATF has already discovered: hold a trials and just pick the top three finishers. Ethiopia actually did this ahead of the Olympics last year. The problem was, they held all the races on the same day, making it impossible for athletes to try out for both the 5,000 and 10,000 teams.

But even if you don’t want to stage a trials, a federation can avoid much of the backlash by announcing a clear criteria ahead of time and sticking to it. You want to pick the team based off season’s bests? Fine. Just let everyone know before the season starts and let them plan their races accordingly. Transparency and consistency are the keys.

Heck, even if you want to be subjective and use a selection panel, you can at least cut down on some of the drama by letting the athletes know in advance that they’ll have to run a few performances to impress the selectors.

What you don’t want to do is announce a team well before the entry deadline (and three days before two key Diamond League meets featuring most of your athletes) only to drastically change it three weeks later. Which is exactly what happened in Ethiopia, leaving athletes like Telahun Bekele (winner of the 5,000 in Oslo) to think they’re on the team only to yank it away less than a month later.

In the end, Ethiopia ended up picking the team by season’s best except in the 10,000, where it staged a trial race (and the top 3 there were the fastest 3 on the year). If it had just used that criteria throughout the year and stuck to it, there would be fewer angry people right now. The athletes deserve better.

Jim Ryun was the first high school boy to break the four-minute barrier in the mile as a Kansas 17-year-old in 1964 and went on to a legendary track and field career that included three Olympic appearances in the 1,500m, a silver medal in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and numerous American and world records. 

Ryun’s name always surfaces when a high schooler dips under 4 minutes in the mile. And in 2022, his name has been coming up a lot. 

Ryun’s career was also in the spotlight earlier this month when he was one of 30 former college track and field athletes inducted into the inaugural class of the USTFCCCA’s Athlete Hall of Fame in conjunction with the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. 

The original 4-minute high school barrier breaker celebrates the resurgence of American high school distance running and says for too long runners were held back in fear of what would happen if they ran under 4 minutes for the mile. 

“I think they realize it’s not a barrier that can’t be broken, it’s more of a matter that if you break it,” Ryun said, “will you go on from there, which you can because we’re seeing more and more of them that are doing that.  

“It’s not the barrier that it once was, should never have been there. For a long time, there were three of us. Myself, Marty Liquori and Tim Danielson. We were the only (sub) 4-minute milers from high school for years and I think it was the result of people being afraid of that, and coaches saying if you run too fast, too soon you’ll never make it very far.” 

Growing up, Ryun often wondered if he would ever be successful in an athletic endeavor. He tried basketball and football and was cut from his church baseball team. At a high school assembly, Bob Timmons, the school’s track and field and cross country coach, encouraged students to run on his cross country team in the fall. 

Ryun had never run more than one lap around a track before joining the cross country team, but in one season at Wichita East High School, he went from the last runner on the third-string team to a sixth-place finish at the Kansas state meet. 

“Running was so new to me, I didn’t know who the heroes were,” Ryun recalled. “In fact, my first thought was I wanted to be a baseball, football, basketball player. Running, what’s that? So, it took a while. The first book Coach Timmons gave to me was about Emil Zatopek, the great Olympian, so I read that, and it began helping me understand about the sport.” 

Ryun said Timmons was convinced he could be the first high school runner to break 4 minutes in the mile. That came true on June 5, 1964, when Ryun ran 3 minutes, 59.0 seconds to finish eighth at the Compton Invitational in Los Angeles. 

“The goal originally was my coach’s because I was the kid that got cut from the church baseball team, didn’t have great talent and when I started running, I was looking for direction,” Ryun said. "And he began basically teaching me about goals, how to reach goals, and gave me workouts to get there. The night that I ran 4 minutes, 3:59.0, I didn’t sleep that night (before) because I realized that it was his goal. 

“But my thought was, what happens if I take ownership, ownership being there’s certain things you as an athlete know you could do like maybe a little extra weightlifting, better eating. It was a transformational moment, because I mean when you finish eighth in a race and become the first kid to run under 4 minutes, that has to change your life – and it did.” 

Ryun’s running career took off from there. He made the 1964 U.S. Olympic team in the 1,500m that went to Tokyo and was the last U.S. high school men’s track and field athlete to make the U.S. Olympic team until teenager Erriyon Knighton qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 200m and finished fourth there. 

As a high school senior, Ryun broke 4 minutes four more times. His time of 3:58.3 at the 1965 Kansas state meet was the first time 4 minutes was broken in a high school-only meet. On June 4, 1965, Ryun returned to the Compton Relays, the site of his first sub-4-minute mile and ran 3:56.8. A little over three weeks later, he ran 3:55.3 at the U.S. AAU Championships in San Diego and beat New Zealand’s Peter Snell, the 1964 Olympic champion in the 800m and 1,500m. 

Ryun, who would stay close to home and attend Kansas University after graduating from high school in 1965, roomed with a former Jayhawks great, Billy Mills, during U.S. training camps leading up to the 1964 Olympics. In Tokyo, Mills stunned the world by becoming the only U.S. athlete to ever win the Olympic 10,000m. 

In 1966, Tim Danielson became the second American high schooler to break 4 minutes when he ran 3:59.4. A year later, Marty Liquori ran 3:59.8 to become the third high schooler under 4 minutes. 

Ryun and Liquori had illustrious careers after high school, particularly Ryun. At age 19 in 1966, Ryun set two world records, first in the 800m (1:44.9), and then the mile (3:51.3). He was the NCAA indoor mile champion for Kansas in 1967, 1968 and 1969, and the 1967 outdoor NCAA mile champion. In 1967, he set a 1,500m world record of 3:33.1 that stood for seven years.

That same year, he lowered his mile world record to 3:51.1., a mark that stood for almost eight years. Ryun was the last American man to hold the mile world record. He still holds American junior records for the mile (3:51.3) and 2-mile (8:25.1), and his 800m American junior record of 1:44.9 stood for exactly 50 years. 

In 2003, ESPN.com ranked Ryun as the greatest U.S. high school athlete of the 20th century, ahead of Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Wilt Chamberlain, Marion Jones, and others.

After Ryun, Danielson, and Liquori, the 4-minute mile wasn’t broken by a prep athlete again for more than 32 years until Alan Webb ran 3:59.86 at the New Balance Games in New York on Jan. 20, 2001. Sensing something special in Webb, the promoters of the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., invited him to run in the Bowerman Mile, the signature event of the meet that has since become a Diamond League event, on May 27, 2001. 

Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj, still the world record-holder in the 1,500m and mile, won the event in 3:49.92, followed by Kevin Sullivan of Canada and Bernard Lagat, then of Kenya, who later ran for the U.S. They helped pull Webb to a fifth-place finish in 3:53.43, breaking Ryun’s 36-year-old high school record. 

“I thought he would. I just didn’t know how much he would break it by," Ryun said. “It was one of those moments in time where he had run well, but he needed somebody to help him get over that finish line, just as I did running under 4 minutes for the first time. You need someone to help set the pace. You can relax a little bit, and he was able to take advantage of that.  

“So, there was no real surprise to me. The biggest surprise was that there weren’t more high school boys running under 4 minutes.” 

It would be another 10 years before a high schooler would break 4 minutes in the mile. In 2015, Matthew Maton and Grant Fisher, now the U.S. record-holder in the men’s 10,000m, both ran 3:59.38 about one month apart. In 2016, two runners broke 4 minutes, including Drew Hunter, who did it twice in a 15-day span in February indoors, both times in New York. 

The 4-minute barrier was broken by high schoolers once in 2017 and again in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Hobbs Kessler ran the fastest high school mile since Webb when he ran 3:57.66 indoors. Kessler later that year broke Ryun’s 1,500m American junior record of 3:36.1 that stood for almost 55 years. 

The lack of American high school runners breaking 4 minutes in the mile for decades might be a big reason why U.S. men haven’t enjoyed much Olympic or international success until recently. When Matthew Centrowitz won the men’s 1,500m at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, he was the first American man to do so since 1908. At the same Olympics, Clayton Murphy won the bronze medal in the 800m, the first American man to medal in the event since 1992. 

And when the World Athletics Championships are hosted on U.S. soil for the first time next month in Eugene, Ore., the defending 800m men’s champion is American Donavan Brazier. 

“If you look back in history, you’d see there was a dominance maybe by a country for a time like Great Britain had all those great runners. America at one time was dominant in that area as well,” Ryun said. “So, I think it’s a matter of floating from place to place, and I think it comes down to motivation. How motivated are you?  

“Over time you start realizing that motivation has to come down to you be willing to get up, run in all kinds of weather, race all over the world and let those talents be developed that God’s given you. So, it takes time. I think America can come back with dominance, but it also comes down to how motivated you are. I see the Kenyans as very motivated, and America can be just as motivated as you see with these new young runners that are developing quickly.” 

That has proven to be the case this season. Seventeen high school runners have broken the 4-minute barrier, and 2022 has been the banner season for it so far with five runners breaking the mark seven times. 

“I think a lot of coaches are seeing, too, that kids are just developing a lot faster doesn’t mean you’re going to burn out,” Ryun said. “It means you’ve got great opportunities. Will you decide to keep it going and, in my case, will you take ownership? The coach can only take you so far, but then you have to establish ownership.” 

The owner of the fastest prep mile this year is Colin Sahlman, who ran 3:58.81 indoors in February, and, like Webb, was invited to the Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic. In a field that included 2020 Tokyo Olympic 1,500m gold medalist Jackob Ingebrigtsen, defending World Athletics Championships 1,500m gold medalist Timothy Cheruiyot, and defending 1,500m NCAA outdoor champion Cole Hocker, Sahlman finished 13th in 3:56.24. Of the 14 men who finished the race, seven set personal bests and seven set season bests, including Ingebrigtsen, whose time of 3:49.76 is the fastest in the world this year. 

Sahlman’s time moved him to third on the all-time prep list behind Webb and Ryun. Sahlman, who is headed to Northern Arizona University for college, was part of a high school powerhouse at Newbury Park High in Southern California. In 2021, Newbury Park became the first high school team to have four runners break 4:10 for the mile in the same season. 

“That mindset has really evolved and developed over these last three to four years,” Sahlman said in a March article in the Los Angeles Times. “It’s just like it’s transformed into something that we never thought was possible. Now we think anything’s possible.” 

Gary Martin has also broken 4 minutes twice this year, running 3:57.98 on May 14 and 3:57.89 on June 2 in the Festival of Miles in St. Louis. At the Festival of Miles, Connor Burns ran 3:58.83 to become the first high school junior since Ryun to break 4 minutes. It was also the first time two prep runners broke 4 minutes in the same race.

Those two performances gave the Festival of Miles four prep runners who have broken 4 minutes. That’s where Fisher did in 2015, a feat repeated by Reed Brown a year later. 

And one day after Martin and Burns broke 4 minutes, Rheinhardt Harrison ran 3:59.33 in Florida on June 3. On June 15, Simeon Birnbaum added to the list of sub-4 minute runners when he became the second high school junior this season to break the mark with a time of 3:59.51.

Will this high school running resurgence lead to greater U.S. success against international competition and major global championships? Only time will tell.  

Olympic 1500m bronze medallist clocks 3:48.87 in Boston to go No.3 on the world all-time rankings

After finishing third in the Olympic 1500m final last year behind Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Timothy Cheruiyot, Josh Kerr boldly stated this month that he is going for gold at the World Championships in Eugene in July.

On Sunday (Feb 27) in Boston he showed why he carries such confidence when he ran 3:48.87 for the mile at the Boston University Last Chance Meet.

The time puts him No.3 on the world all-time rankings behind Yomif Kejelcha’s world record of 3:47.01 and Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:48.45.

It also smashes the long-standing British record of 3:52.02 held by Peter Elliott – a mark which was set at East Rutherford in 1990.

Elliott incidentally also holds the British 1500m indoor record with 3:34.20 but it is thought Kerr may have run quicker en route during his mile.

In addition, Kerr’s time is a European record, as it breaks Eamonn Coghlan’s 3:49.78, which was also set in East Rutherford back in 1983. At the time Coghlan was the first man to run a sub-3:50 mile indoors and even now, 39 years later, Kerr has become only the seventh athlete to achieve the feat.

Kerr’s splits saw him pass the first lap in 58.15 and halfway in 1:56.75 before he ran a trademark strong second half of the race to go through three laps in 2:52.04 (55.3) before finishing with a 56.8 final lap.

John Landy, a scholarly Australian who became the second man, after Roger Bannister of England, to run the mile in under four minutes, and who later dueled Bannister in a race that became known as the Mile of the Century, died on Thursday at his home in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. He was 91.

His death was reported by the country’s main public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

For as long as races were measured in time, running a mile in less than four minutes had remained one of humankind’s seemingly unbreachable barriers. But by 1954, three of the world’s greatest runners — Landy, Bannister and Wes Santee of the United States — had been edging closer to that mark and appeared ready to shatter it.

All three faced obstacles: Landy, at just over 5-foot-11 and 150 pounds, was running on slower grass tracks in Australia; Bannister was deep into medical studies at Oxford; and Santee had to run three relays for the University of Kansas in almost every meet.

Bannister reached four minutes first, running a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954, in Oxford. Not to be outdone, Landy, who graduated from Melbourne University that year with a degree in agricultural science, headed for Europe and its faster tracks.

On June 21 — 46 days after Bannister’s historic race — Landy lowered the world record even more, to 3:57.9, in Turku, Finland. (According to the timing rules of the day, which called for mile records to be listed in fifths rather than tenths of a second, the time was listed as 3:58.0; it is now recognized as 3:57.9, the actual time recorded by four timers.)

As Landy saw it, he and Bannister had simply done the inevitable. “Four minutes was not a psychological barrier,” he said. “Someone was going to break it. If there hadn’t been a war, it would have fallen 10 years earlier.”

Landy’s record would last three years; it was broken in 1957 by Derek Ibbotson of England, who ran 3:57.2. (The current record is 3:43.13, run by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.)

 

Jacques Rogge served as the eighth President of the IOC, from 2001 to 2013, and competed for Belgium in sailing at three editions of the Olympic Games, in 1968, 1972 and 1976.

In 2005 he announced the awarding of the 2012 Games to London, with Coe having led the UK capital city’s bid.

Rogge, who was an orthopaedic surgeon with a degree in sports medicine, was married to Anne, and leaves a son, a daughter and two grandchildren.

“I am beyond sad to hear the news of Jacques’ passing,” Coe said. “I wrote to Jacques and Anne two weeks ago to tell them that all of us at World Athletics missed them at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. I said it wasn’t the same being in the Olympic stadium watching athletics without them.

“I have a mountainous gratitude for his part in the seamless delivery of London 2012. No Organising Committee could have asked or received more. He was passionate about sport and all he achieved in sport and beyond was done with common decency, compassion and a level head. We will all miss him.”

After his career as an athlete, which included becoming a Belgian rugby international, Rogge became President of the Belgian and European Olympic Committees, and was elected President of the IOC in 2001. After his IOC Presidency, he also served as a Special Envoy for Youth, Refugees and Sport to the United Nations.

“First and foremost, Jacques loved sport and being with athletes - and he transmitted this passion to everyone who knew him. His joy in sport was infectious,” said Thomas Bach, who succeeded Rogge as IOC President in 2013.

“He was an accomplished President, helping to modernise and transform the IOC. He will be remembered particularly for championing youth sport and for inaugurating the Youth Olympic Games. He was also a fierce proponent of clean sport, and fought tirelessly against the evils of doping.

“The entire Olympic Movement will deeply mourn the loss of a great friend and a passionate fan of sport.”

In a post on Twitter, World Athletics Senior Vice-President Sergey Bubka said: “Deeply mourn the loss of a wonderful personality, true friend and great leader, IOC Honorary President Jacques Rogge.

“Dedicating his life to the Olympic Movement, he was very special in his human attitude towards others, incredible love for athletes and understanding of the youth.”

Among others to pay tribute to Rogge was Moroccan middle distance great Hicham El Guerrouj, who wrote: “With a heavy heart, I pray for the eternal repose of Jacques Rogge, the former president of the IOC. RIP.”

Last year, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei set world records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters as part of an unforgettable 2020 season.

On Wednesday at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, he will try to go one better and become just the third man to hold the 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 records simultaneously. Yes, that’s right. Cheptegei will attempt to break Daniel Komen‘s legendary 7:20.67 3,000-meter world record which has stood for nearly 25 years — since September 1, 1996.

Cheptegei´s camp is under no illusions as to the difficulty of the feat.

“It’s a big ask for Joshua to break [the 3,000-meter world record], we have to be realistic about that,” Cheptegei’s agent Jurrie van der Velden told LetsRun.com. “But we believe it’s possible with the training he’s done. It will be the toughest attempt for him thus far.”

There are several reasons why. First is the 3,000-meter record itself is one of the longest-standing men’s world records and has scarcely been challenged since. Only Hicham El Guerrouj, who ran 7:23.09 in 1999, has come within four seconds of the mark. Even the great Kenenisa Bekele, previous holder of the 5,000 and 10,000 records, never ran faster than 7:25.79.

Second is Cheptegei’s skillset. While the World Athletics scoring tables say 7:20 is equivalent to 12:36 and 26:15 for 5,000 and 10,000 — both marks Cheptegei has bettered — it will be tougher for Cheptegei who, as a distance specialist, is more suited to the longer events. He will need a lot of speed to break 7:20.67 — it’s 3:56 mile pace for seven-and-a-half laps — and Cheptegei, whose 3,000 pb is 7:33.26, has yet to demonstrate the raw 1500 speed of Komen, who had a personal best of 3:29.46.

In Cheptegei’s defense, he has barely raced the 1500. His Tilastopaja profile lists just three races at the distance, the most recent of which was a pb of 3:37.36 on April 24 in Kampala (elevation: 3,937 feet). He will have to run close to that pace for twice the distance to break Komen’s record.

Cheptegei does have a few things working in his favor, however. He has an ace pacemaker in Australia’s Stewart McSweyn, who ran 3:30 and 7:28 last year, and will also benefit from the pacing light system that aided Cheptegei in his world records in Monaco and Valencia last year. The pace is scheduled for 2:26-2:27 per kilometer, with Dutchman Richard Douma serving as the first pacer through 1200 meters before giving way to McSweyn, who will attempt to go through 2000.

Cheptegei also has Nike’s superspikes, which have made Komen’s once-untouchable record seem more attainable. For eight years — from 2012 through 2019 — no man broke 7:28 for 3,000. In the last eight months, five men have done it, all in Nike spikes.

Most of the time the contestants on Jeopardy! leave us in awe of their seemingly endless knowledge of random facts, which is why there is no better feeling than knowing an answer that none of them gets right. In last night’s episode (with Ken Jennings as the new interim host in place of the late Alex Trebek), runners everywhere finally had their moment when all three contestants on the show demonstrated their extreme lack of knowledge of track and field (and well, distances in general). We know our sport is more niche than football or hockey, but this was just embarrassing.

The question that made runners everywhere shake their heads was:

“Hicham El Guerrouj holds the world records in the mile and this metric track distance that’s just a bit shorter.”

The answer is (obviously) the 1,500m, but before we get into the contestants’ hilariously bad answers, let us first say that we understand Americans don’t use the metric system, so maybe that’s where some of the confusion came from. Still, take a minute to consider they got questions like this right:

“Something ridiculously small such as an apartment may be compared to this sticky item, which is often 0.87 x 0.98 inches.”

Seriously?

(The answer was a postage stamp.)

OK, so on to the answers. It’s obvious that none of these contestants have any running friends, because they’ve clearly never had to sit and listen as we regale them with our running stories, or talk their ear off about track stats. Or they did, but they tuned us out, which, if we’re being honest with ourselves, is kind of fair.

Instead of listing their answers in order, we’ve decided instead to rank them from bad, to worse, to worst:

Liz Fitting’s answer: “what is the 500 metre?”

This answer was at least in the realm of possible track distances (there is, after all, a 600m indoors) so we’ll cut her a bit of slack. But in what world is 500 metres “a bit shorter” than a mile? It’s less than half the distance! Clearly she’s never experienced the pain of being 1K away from a finish line.

Lucy Ricketts’ answer: “what is the 10 metre?”

This answer is just plain ridiculous. The 10 metre? Is she going to track meets for hamsters? (Actually that might be kind of fun to watch.)

Brett Moore’s answer: “what is the 10,000 metre?”

Did he panic and just blurt out the first thing that came to his head? It’s possible. Is this another case of confusion over the use of the metric system? Maybe. Or maybe poor Brett has been claiming he can run an eight-minute 10K his whole life because he was legitimately confused.

So there you have it, runners of the world — when you’re talking to all your friends about your running accomplishments, you can add this one into the rotation. Now we’re going to go find out if hamster Olympics are a real thing…

The running and drinking communities have long shared an unlikely Venn diagram. In the 1930s, some athletes would bring beer along for lengthy workouts, believing that its hearty grains might propel them to longer distances. For decades, at the end of the Berlin Marathon, runners who’ve made the podium are given medals and enormous boots of Erdinger. And these days, running clubs like Toronto’s RUNTOBEER start and finish at breweries around the city. Hell, there’s even a craft brewery in Chico, California, called Sufferfest that’s operated by lifelong runners and makes light, low-calorie ales designed for the highly active beer drinker.

Still, there is no greater (nor less subtle) collision of these two disciplines than the infamous Beer Mile, a concept that is arguably more popular than any internationally sanctioned event in the entire sport of track and field. It’s an irresistible blend — the familiarity of elementary-school gym class with the low-class hijinks of college — and it’s at the forefront of an unofficial, utterly unasked-for movement in both the amateur and professional running circles: run four laps hard, but make it weird.

In the last five months, runners have set two new, preposterously specific mile-run records: one while handcuffed, and one while wearing a pair of blue jeans. It would be tempting to laugh these efforts off, if only they weren’t so fast. (The jeans miler rumbled in at an unholy 4:06.) And really, at the end of the day, it’s fun to embrace these races, which wed the appeal of an old, oft-forgotten sport with stunts and gimmicks that thrive on social media.

Which is exactly what we’ve done. Below, find the 13 weirdest mile-run records known to man — including the fastest miles ever run in a bomb suit, with a dog and under the influence of chocolate milk.

Fastest Beer Mile

Corey Bellemore, 4:33

Bellemore actually ran a 4:24 about a year after his 4:33 mark, but got disqualified for leaving a combined 4.5 ounces of beer in his “empties.” Those judges are serious. As is his running ability; he’s an Adidas-sponsored athlete with a personal best of 3:57 to his name. Which is a crucial theme in the world of wacky mile records: always eager for a challenge, the pros inevitably hijack the bonkers creations of layman runners. Just six years ago, for instance, the running world had celebrated its first sub-five beer mile. Check out the full catalogue of all-time bests here, including stats on the favored beers. (Budweiser is currently in the lead, though Bellemore, a Canadian, prefers the craft stuff from Ontario’s Flying Monkeys Brewery.)

Fastest Mile in Jeans

Johnny Gregorek, 4:06

This past May, Asics athlete Johnny “The Jet” Gregorek ran a blistering 4:06 in a pair of Levi 501s. It was enough to beat Dillion Maggard’s former record time of 4:11, and horrify millions across the internet who think wearing jeans on a plane should be a “criminal offense.” Gregorek, who is a middle-distance star with a silver medal from the 2019 Pan American Games, trained for his record by running 100-meter sprints in the blue jeans to break them in. On race day, he also managed to raise $31,000 for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, in an homage to his late brother. Levi’s donated $5,000.

Fastest Walking Mile

Tom Bosworth, 5:31

Of all the feats listed here, this is the only one that doesn’t actually involve running. And yet, it’s also the only one you’re likely to find at a legitimate track meet. Racewalking is very much a sport, despite the fact that it looks like several minutes of that “This one is serious” dash people make for the bathroom after eating bad shellfish. The only rule? Keep one foot in contact with the ground at all times, which distinguishes it from the leaps and bounds of running. Distances usually start at 3,000 meters, and hike all the way up to 100 kilometers (that’s 62 miles), but mile races have some popularity, too. At the 2017 Diamond League in London, British race walker Tom Bosworth clocked in at 5:31, to the delight of a very excited commentator.

Fastest Mile Downhill

Mike Boit, 3:27

We recently covered a virtual, March Madness-style running tournament called “Survival of the Fastest,” in which runners were pitted against each other each week to race a new, specific distance. Downhill racing was allowed in the competition (even encouraged) and by the time the bracket had been whittled down to a final four, every runner involved was hitting start on Strava from the top of a mountain in order to ensure the most competitive time possible. It really does make an absurd difference. Hicham El Guerrouj has holds the official world record for the mile run (3:43), but Mike Boit’s performance in 1983, when he sprinted down a hill through the center of Auckland to a 3:27 finish, is the fastest a human being has ever covered 1,600 meters on his own two feet.

Fastest Mile in Alaska

Ben Blankenship, 3:57

“An Alaskan Mile” was an official selection for the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival in 2018, and it chronicles an effort by eight elite runners — with Oregon and Olympian pedigrees among them — to become the first to break the four-minute barrier on Alaskan soil. As Trevor Dunbar (one of the runners, the event organizer and from Kodiak, himself) points out, Alaska only has three months where such an accomplishment would be remotely possible, and even then, high winds or even frost could arrive right before the gun goes off. It’s worth the 20-minute watch if you’re interested, but just know that Alaskans were amped to see Minnesotan Ben Blankenship go well under four, setting a new state record.

Fastest Mile on a Treadmill

Anthony Famiglietti, 3:58

It’s Anthony Famigletti’s party, and he’ll run a 3:58 mile on a treadmill if he wants to. A former Olympian who competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in Beijing, Famiglietti recruited the fastest American miler ever, Alan Webb (3:46), to help him start breaking four-minute miles into his forties. It worked. This is Famiglietti late last year, on his 41st birthday, running at a 3:58 pace for a full mile on his treadmill. Forget anything you’ve heard about treadmills juicing performance; that’s irrelevant here. Him staying on that machine is akin to deftly canoeing through Class V rapids. And better yet, he got to do it at his own Reckless Running store in Mooresville, North Carolina, which he owns with his wife.

Fastest Mile with a Dog

Anthony Famiglietti, 3:59

More Famigletti. Another impressive sub-four — this one a year earlier, at age 40 — but all credit here goes to Bailey the dog, who casually rolled out of bed to brush against the pinnacle of human athletic achievement, and wanted more. Famigletti affixed Bailey to his waist via a hands-free “bungee” leash (which doesn’t exactly square with our dog running tips, by the way) and ran hard to earn his time. But the fact that Bailey basically dragged an adult 5,280 feet and didn’t once chase a squirrel is the real takeaway here.

Fastest Backwards Mile

Aaron Yoder, 5:54

The Guinness World Record for fastest backpedaled mile ended with the following exchange:

Fastest Chocolate Milk Mile

Mars Bishop, 4:56

On paper, it’s the PG-rated beer mile. But subbing chocolate milk for beer is no joke, and arguably more likely to end in puke penalties. At the 2nd Annual Chocolate Milk Mile in Cranston, Rhode Island, runners slugged cups of the good stuff from East Providence’s Munroe Dairy Farm. A number of runners had to run shame laps for spewing, but runner Mars Bishop torched the track to the tune of 4:56. Because the rules to the Chocolate Milk Mile are exactly the same as the Beer Mile, beermile.com has apparently decided to include the results in its database. (Under beer of choice, they put a chocolate milk logo.) With all respect to Bishop, this record — from 2017 — seems ready to be broken again.

Fastest Mile While Handcuffed

Jeremy Greenwald, 4:52

Save your “running from the cops” jokes, YouTube’s finest have already handled that. Besides, we’re legitimately interested in this from a physical standpoint. Despite the amount of long-distance runners you see without much meat on their arms, the mile is a bang-bang event, where many competitors rely on a dramatic, arm-pumping “kick” in their last lap. To break five with those arms rendered useless is a real challenge. It’s clear from the video that Greenwald, a former Division 1 runner at Georgia Tech, had to rely heavily on his core muscles while keeping his shoulders straight and back; after all, if he fell, the whole thing was over. The previous record for this “event” was 6:37.

Fastest Mile in a Bomb Suit

Daniel Glenn, 8:57

Advanced Bomb Suits weigh 80 pounds, and are reinforced with Kevlar ballistic panels that can withstand blasts traveling at supersonic speeds of over 1,600 m/s. If you’ve seen The Hurt Locker, you have an idea of how serious they are: soldiers routinely get heat exhaustion from just walking around a few paces in one, so for Lt. Daniel Glenn to complete a full mile in one is unheard of. But to do so at the clip of an average American mile time (nine to 10 minutes) is staggering. Even more impressive: he did it in Florida.

Fastest Mile While Juggling

Zach Prescott, 4:43

Yeah, you were probably going to get through your entire life without discovering that “joggling” existed, and you would’ve been just fine. Sorry. Joggling is running while juggling three objects in time, and for decades, Kirk Swenson was the undisputed king of the sport. He joggled a 4:43.8 way back in 1986. Then Boston University runners Zach Prescott came along, and threw three lacrosse balls around en route to a buzzer-beater 4:43.2 victory. Guinness World Records is still in the process of verifying the new record.

Fastest Mile in Death Valley While Wearing a Darth Vader Suit

Jonathan Rice, 6:13

This happened and and there is NOTHING any of us can do about it.

In fact, as the delayed elite season opened with the Monaco Diamond League meeting last week, El Bakkali was excited upon seeing the Kenyan contingent at the Stade Loius II in the heart of the principality.

“The men from Africa!” he screamed and then posed for selfies with the Kenyan delegation headed by coach Bernard Ouma.

“He actually asked for the group photo on our way out of the track,” Ouma added, describing the Moroccan as an “amiable character.”

“We had our last breakfast together in Monaco on Sunday on his way to Paris,” Ouma added on Thursday.

First-placed Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali competed in the men's 3,000 metres steeplechase event during the Diamond League Athletics Meeting at The Louis II Stadium in Monaco on August 14, 2020.

The 24-year-old Moroccan has now expressed his interest in running with the Kenyans at the October 3 Kip Keino Classic leg of the World Athletics Continental Tour at the Nyayo National Stadium.

This sets up a potentially mouthwatering race given that El Bakkali ran the season’s best (world lead) time of eight minutes, 8.04 seconds to win in Monaco ahead of Kenya’s Leonard Bett (8:08.78).

Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali (top photo) celebrates after winning the men's 3,000 metres steeplechase event as second-placed Leonard Bett of Kenya looks on during the Diamond League Athletics Meeting at The Louis II Stadium in Monaco on August 14, 2020.

Down with Covid-19, Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto should be fit by then to set up a classic from 4.23pm at Nyayo National Stadium on October 3, according to the draft programme of events. “El Bakkali’s management say he wants to fly from the Doha Diamond League meeting (September 25) direct to Nairobi,” Kip Keino Classic meet director Barnaba Korir confirmed on Thursday. “We are finalising the arrangements for him and this (steeplechase) definitely should be one of the highlights of the Kip Keino Classic.”

With, bizzarrely, Morocco having failed to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games since the legend Hicham El Guerrouj struck a 1,500, and 5,000m double in Athents 16 years ago, the north African nation is banking on El Bakkali to pan the elusive medal at the Tokyo Games, now shifted to next summer.

Olympics 3,000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto (right), and another athlete during training at St Francis Cheptarit High School in Mosoriot, Nandi County on August 06. 

El Bakkali (PB 7:58.15) won silver at the 2017 World Championships in London and followed up with bronze in Doha last year, finishing behind Kipruto and Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma whom he could face at the Kip Keino Classic on October 3.

He was fourth at the 2016 Rio Games and was the only Moroccan athlete signed up by Visa (credit card) in its promotions for Tokyo 2020.

On Thursday, Ouma, who is preparing his athletes for this weekend’s second Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, said there could also be a possibility of bigger names coming to Nairobi in October.

“It (Kip Keino Classic) will be a very entertaining meet,” he summed it up.

After breaking the European 2000m record with 4:50.01 at the Impossible Games in Oslo where he had the advantage of being paced by his brothers, Ingebrigtsen was racing against not only his older brother Filip but also the reigning world champion Timothy Cheruiyot from Kenya who was decisively beaten by the Ingebrigtsens in the virtual head-to-head clash between Oslo and Nairobi.

Aided by his training partners who were acting as his pacemakers, Cheruiyot blazed through the early stages in an unfathomably fast pace on his unofficial season’s debut. These exertions appeared to be catching up on the world champion as the pack closed up on Cheruiyot at the bell with Ingebrigtsen looming into view and Great Britain’s Jake Wightman also rounding into contention.

Ingebrigtsen was in position to strike off the final bend but the forward-leaning Cheruiyot kicked away again, holding the Norwegian off to win in a world leading 3:28.45 after an overly exuberant first 400 meters of 52.59. In contrast Ingebrigtsen ran a much more steady paced race and was rewarded with a phenomenally fast time of 3:28.68.

Ingebrigtsen’s time eclipsed Mo Farah’s European record of 3:28.81 which was set in the same stadium seven years ago and the teenager moves to eighth on the world all-time list which is still headed by Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:26.00.

“I felt like I kept the same pace...going from 3:30 to 3:28 it's double the achievement. It's crazy,” said Ingebrigtsen whose previous lifetime best stood at 3:30.16.

Ingebrigtsen was gearing up for not only his Olympic debut in Tokyo as well as the now-cancelled European Championships in Paris where more continental honors must have surely beckoned. Despite the decimation of the summer calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic, motivation has by no means been lacking for the ebullient and popular Norwegian.

“This year I have been doing every session, I never skipped a single one because I was very motivated after Doha. That's why I can run this fast. It's unbelievable to run this fast in one race. It's one shot, one chance,” he said.

The Stade Louis II Stadium is the foremost venue for middle distance runners searching for fast times. Behind Ingebrigtsen, Wightman moved to fourth on the European all-time list - ahead of both Sebastian Coe (3:29.77) and Steve Cram (3:29.67) among others - with a marvelous lifetime best of 3:29.47.

Filip Ingebrigtsen, who had to concede the family record of 3:30.01 to Jakob tonight, almost matched his lifetime best with 3:30.35 in fourth. Reigning European indoor champion Marcin Lewandowski from Poland was seventh in 3:33.99.

Professional athletes who are experiencing financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic will be able to register for a one-off welfare grant from today until May 31.

Two weeks ago World Athletics and the International Athletics Foundation (IAF) announced that a US$ 500,000 welfare fund had been created to support professional athletes who have lost a substantial part of their income due to the suspension of international competition this year.

A working group was formed to oversee the distribution of the funds and it has now finalised the eligibility criteria and application process.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, who chairs the working group, said it had been a challenging and complicated task to define the eligibility criteria to ensure that grants from the fund were delivered to the athletes most in need.

“The IAF has allocated a substantial sum to the fund, and we hope to raise more through private donations from friends of our sport, but it has become apparent that the resources must be focused on athletes who are likely to be competing at the Olympic Games in Tokyo next year and are now struggling to pay for basic necessities due to loss of income during the pandemic,’’ Coe said.

“We know this is a stressful situation for many athletes and we are trying to provide meaningful assistance to as many as possible as quickly as possible so they can continue to train for the competition season we have now scheduled for August to October, and for next year’s Olympics.’’

World 1500m record-holder and Olympic champion Hicham El Guerrouj, who initiated this project and sits on the working group, said the loss of competition had had a huge impact on professional athletes because many relied on prize money to support themselves and their families.

The Fund will support athletes who have met the Tokyo Olympic Games entry standard and will provide welfare grants to be used to cover basic living expenses. The level of grant will be dependent on the number of approved applications and up to a maximum of US$4000. It is anticipated that the grants will be distributed directly to athletes from June.

Only athletes who have been impacted financially to the extent that they are unable to maintain their basic standard of living should apply. All applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria:

Must be qualified (by meeting the entry standard) for selection for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Must have never had an anti-doping rule violation

Must be able to demonstrate a justifiable welfare need through significant loss of income in 2020 compared to 2019.

To help ensure the fund goes to those most in need, please note the following athletes will not be eligible to apply:

Those ranked in the Top 6 in their event in the World Athletics World Rankings

Those who have finished in the Top 6 positions of any Gold Label Road Race in 2019

Those who have earned more than USD 6,000 in prize money from the Diamond League in 2019

Kenya's athletes will benefit from a 500,000 U.S. dollar global fund, which World Athletics launched on Tuesday to help athletes with their financial needs through the Covid-19 pandemic period.

Athletics Kenya (AK) president Jack Tuwei welcomed the move saying it will help bail out athletes who are most effected by the lack of competition with a complete lockdown of sports competitions globally.

"Certainly this fund will cushion them (athletes) from the effects of this virus. Every sector needs help and we thank World Athletics for coming up with such an initiative for athletes," Tuwei said in Nairobi.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said the fund would be used to assist athletes who have lost most of their income in the last few months due to the suspension of international competition while the world combats the global health emergency.

Coe said it was important that the sport supports its athletes who are most in need during the current circumstances.

"I am in constant contact with athletes around the world and I know that many are experiencing financial hardship as a consequence of the shutdown of most international sports competition in the last two months," said Coe.

Most professional athletes rely on prize money as part of their income.

"We're mindful that our competition season, on both the track and road, is being severely impacted by the pandemic. We are hopeful that we will be able to stage at least some competition later this year, but in the meantime we will also endeavor, through this fund and additional monies we intend to seek through the friends of our sport, to help as many athletes as possible," Coe added.

The World Athletics head will chair an expert multi-regional working group to assess the applications for assistance, which will be submitted through World Athletics' six Area Associations.

The members include Olympic champion and 1500m world record-holder Hicham El Guerrouj, and Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi among others.

World Athletics, together with the International Athletics Foundation (IAF), has today launched a US$500,000 fund to support professional athletes experiencing financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, who also chairs the IAF, said the fund would be used to assist athletes who have lost most of their income in the last few months due to the suspension of international competition while the world combats the global health emergency.

Established in 1986 to support charitable causes involving athletics, the International Athletics Foundation, under the Honorary Presidency of HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, has allocated resources from its budgets for 2020 and 2021 to assist athletes in need through this process.Coe will chair an expert multi-regional working group to assess the applications for assistance, which will be submitted through World Athletics’ six Area Associations.

The members will include: Olympic champion and 1500m world record-holder Hicham El Guerrouj, Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi (representing the WA Athletes’ Commission), WA Executive Board members Sunil Sabharwal (Audit Committee) and Abby Hoffman, WA Council members Adille Sumariwalla, Beatrice Ayikoru and Willie Banks, IAF Executive Committee member and former WA treasurer Jose Maria Odriozola and Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines President Keith Joseph.

The working group will meet this week to establish a process for awarding and distributing grants to individual athletes and to look at other ways to raise additional monies for the fund.Coe said it was important that the sport supported its athletes most in need during the current circumstances.

“I would especially like to thank Hicham for bringing this idea to us, and Prince Albert for his strong support of this project. I am in constant contact with athletes around the world and I know that many are experiencing financial hardship as a consequence of the shutdown of most international sports competition in the last two months. Our professional athletes rely on prize money as part of their income and we’re mindful that our competition season, on both the track and road, is being severely impacted by the pandemic.

We are hopeful that we will be able to stage at least some competition later this year, but in the meantime we will also endeavour, through this fund and additional monies we intend to seek through the friends of our sport, to help as many athletes as possible.

"HSH Prince Albert II added: "I created more than 35 years ago the International Athletics Foundation with the late Primo Nebiolo to encourage and promote athletics and grant financial assistance to athletics federations and the most deserving athletes.

Since its inception the Foundation has distributed for these purposes more than US$30 Million. I am delighted that we can put our resources behind this initiative so we can make a difference to the lives of athletes who are suffering financially at this time.

We hope that this support will help those athletes preparing for international competition, including next year’s Olympic Games, to sustain their training, support their families and that this will relieve them of some stress in these uncertain times.’’El Guerrouj said: “The pandemic is causing economic pain to people from all parts of society, including athletes, and this is a time when we must come together as a global community to help each other.

I am delighted that Seb and World Athletics reacted so positively to my suggestion that we create a fund for athletes, and have made it happen with the support of the International Athletics Foundation.

The suspension of competition has had a huge impact on many professional athletes because they can’t earn prize money so I’m really pleased that we have found a way to assist them.”

World 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot has said he had high hopes of peaking at the right time this season to make a serious attempt on the world record.

"When the year started, I had two items I wanted to accomplish - winning Olympic gold and breaking the world record. At the moment, the Olympic dream is gone, moved to 2021 and the dream chance of running at the higher level at full throttle looks bleak," he said on Sunday.

Hicham El Guerrouj's record of 3:26.00 has stood the test of time for over two decades and Cheruiyot, who has seen his rise from obscurity to blossom as a world champion feels he was the man to finally shatter the record.

However, the coronavirus pandemic has nipped in the bud his dream as he has no idea when he will return to action.

Cheruiyot is worried many athletes will struggle to regain fitness and sharpness in competition whenever the ban on sports competition is lifted.

With the shutdown of all training camps in Kenya, Cheruiyot, like many other athletes is facing the prospect of lazing at home in 2020 after the Covid-19 global pandemic wrecked the sports calendar.

Cheruiyot now has turned his focus on staying safe and forgotten his hope of chasing records.

His best time on the miler is 3:28.41, which he posted in Monaco in 2018.

"People break records when they run regularly and competitively at the highest level. So clearly from where we stand that is not going to be the case this year," he added.

Meanwhile, Olympic 5,000m silver medalist Hellen Obiri has urged fellow athletes to follow social distancing and practice good hygiene standards.

Obiri, the world 5,000m champion, who has been forced to amend her training program, says she only has one session in the morning to train.

She believes, like other sectors, sports will have to suffer initially before order is restored. However, she believes she will emerge out of the self-quarantine stronger and ready to battle her way to the top to win the only medal missing in her collection, Olympic gold.

"I have to train alone and it is difficult. It requires a lot of discipline and focus because distractions are many," Obiri said on Monday in Nairobi.

"These are difficult times, which call for special measures. As athletes and role models we must sensitise the need to keep safe and follow government directives. We must be very careful, that is why I can only afford to train once a day."

With no Diamond League meetings and the World Athletics Continental Tour having been postponed, Obiri has had to be careful not to peak too soon.

"There will be time for action and the important thing now is to remain safe and healthy. When everything is done and there is no coronavirus, we will train as a team and compete at the highest stage again," she said.

World Athletics President Seb Coe has said it will be a lot harder to stage all competitions in 2020 when the situation allows and athletes will have to select which events to take part in after Covid-19 is defeated.

Organisers of the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais have confirmed that world indoor 1500m champion Samuel Tefera and world 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi will compete at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Lievin on 19 February.

Tefera won the 1500m convincingly in Lievin last year, finishing three seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Six days later, he broke the world indoor record for the distance in Birmingham, clocking 3:31.04 to break a record that had stood for 22 years.

Hicham El Guerrouj, who held the world indoor record before Tefera, still holds the Lievin meeting record at 3:32.01.

Nakaayi was a surprise winner of the 800m at last year’s World Athletics Championships, taking gold in a Ugandan record of 1:58.04. The 25-year-old has never competed indoors before this year, but it’s highly likely she will break the Ugandan indoor record of 2:04.57 during her indoor campaign.

World 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot believes the return to action of his training mate Elijah Manangoi will propel the two to post fast times on the track even as they plot to attempt breaking the world record this year.

Cheruiyot had until last year been playing second fiddle to his training mate and friend Manangoi.

However, a hamstring injury ruled out Manangoi from defending his title in Doha, setting the stage for Cheruiyot to climb to the top and reign supreme on the global stage. 

Now Cheruiyot is dreaming of shuttering the 3:26.00 world record set by legendary Moroccan middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj, which has been unchallenged for the last two decades.

“The victory I earned in the Doha World Championships last October meant a lot to me because it (gold) was something I had yearned for the past four years.

“I know the record has been there for long and Kenyan athletes have been top of the leaderboard in fast times in the race so, it would be nice if we can work together to attempt breaking it.

“The focus should be on how to train and for sure the record. What I know is it will go down at some time,” Cheruiyot said on Tuesday in Kericho.

But of greater concern to Cheruiyot going into the new season in 2020 will be being able to prove to the world that he is his own man and can emerge from the shadows of his training mate Manangoi to stage his own contest and win.

That will be at the Tokyo Olympic Games. “Of course every athlete has his focus on the Olympic Games. A win at this stage will go a long way in cementing my name among Kenya’s best athletes. For now, my focus is to make the team for the Olympic Games and try to win a medal,” Cheruiyot added.

 

The Prefontaine Classic relocated, temporarily, and it brought the best fields of the Diamond League season with it to Stanford, California on Sunday June 30.

That includes the world’s fastest man and woman this year (Christian Coleman and Elaine Thompson), the athlete who has made the most worldwide headlines this season (Caster Semenya) and a bevy of other reigning Olympic and world champions.

Notably, Olympic 10,000m champion Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia and Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon will compete for the first time since 2017. World 100m champions Justin Gatlin and Tori Bowie are in their first Diamond League meets in more than one year. It’s the first Diamond League in two years for 2008 Olympic 400m champ LaShawn Merritt. It’s also the first race of 2019 for Olympic 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz.

NBC and NBC Sports Gold air live coverage Sunday from 1-3 p.m. Pacific.

The Pre Classic has been held annually since 1975 in Eugene, Ore. But Hayward Field’s reconstruction ahead of the 2020 Olympic Trials forced a move to Cobb Track and Angell Field at Stanford.

Here are the Pre Classic entry lists. Here’s the schedule of events (all times Pacific):

Here are 10 events to watch:

Men’s Pole Vault — 12:43 p.m.The Big Three of the event meet for the first time this season: 2012 Olympic champion and world-record holder Renaud Lavillenie of France, 2017 World champion Sam Kendricksand 2018 and 2019 world leader Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, who just turned pro after his freshman year at LSU. Lavillenie has competed just once this season due to injury. Duplantis was beaten at NCAAs by Chris Nilsen (also in the Pre field). But Kendricks has been hot, winning the first three Diamond League pole vaults this season (though Lavillenie and Nilsen weren’t in any of those fields and Duplantis just one).

Women’s High Jump — 1:08 p.m.U.S. champion Vashti Cunningham takes another crack at Russian Mariya Lasitskene, who has just two losses in the last three years. Cunningham is 0-7 versus Lasitskene but has this spring already bettered her top clearance of 2018. Lasitskene, though, appears in top form after taking three attempts at a world record 2.10 meters in Ostrava last week.

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase — 1:11 p.m.Six of the eight fastest in history, headlined by world gold and silver medalists Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs. The only time either Coburn or Frerichs won a steeple that included any of the four fastest Kenyans in history was at those 2017 Worlds. Another chance Sunday.

Women’s 100m — 1:27 p.m.NCAA champion Sha’Carri Richardson would have been the favorite here in her pro debut if not for what happened Friday. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a two-time Olympic 100m champion, clocked her fastest time in six years (10.73 seconds) to become the fastest mom in history and No. 2 in the world this year behind Rio gold medalist Elaine Thompson. Also watch reigning world champ Tori Bowie, who is coming back from a quad tear and coaching change.

Women’s 800m — 1:47 p.m.Caster Semenya races her trademark event for the first time since a Swiss Supreme Court ruled her eligible while it deliberates on her appeal against a Court of Arbitration for Sport decision to uphold an IAAF rule capping testosterone in women’s events from the 400m through the mile. The Swiss court ruling applies only to Semenya and not the other Rio Olympic medalists, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Wambui, who are also affected by the new rule. So Semenya’s closest threat at Pre is American record holder Ajeé Wilson, but Semenya has won 30 straight 800m races dating to 2015.

Men’s Shot Put — 2:01 p.m.Olympic champion Ryan Crouser had a sterling record at Hayward Field, taking NCAA, Pre Classic and Olympic Trials titles. He’s pretty strong in California, too, recording his personal best (22.74 meters) in Long Beach in April. Nobody has been within a foot and a half of that this season, but the last two world champions (New Zealand’s Tom Walsh and American Joe Kovacs) will try to snap his undefeated 2019 on Sunday.

Men’s 400m — 2:19 p.m.Lost some sizzle with the withdrawal of 2012 Olympic champion Kirani James, who has missed time with Graves’ disease and, more recently, his mother’s death. Instead, the three fastest Americans of the last decade line up — 2018 and 2019 world leader Michael Norman (43.45 from April 20), 2017 world No. 2 Fred Kerley and 2008 Olympic championLaShawn Merritt.

Women’s 200m — 2:25 p.m.Strongest sprint field of the meet: 2016 Olympic champion Elaine Thompson, 2015 and 2017 World champion Dafne Schippers and 2018 world leader Dina Asher-Smith. Should produce the fastest time in the world this year, which is currently 22.16, and the favorite for world champs.

Men’s 100m — 2:39 p.m.Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman go head-to-head for the first time since the 2017 Worlds, where Gatlin took gold, Usain Bolt silver and Coleman bronze. Coleman is the world’s fastest man this Olympic cycle (9.79) and this year (9.85). Gatlin, 37, hasn’t broken 10 seconds since beating Bolt but has a bye to defend his title in Doha in September.

Men’s Mile — 2:51 p.m.Olympic 1500m champ Matthew Centrowitz races on the track for the first time since July 22, eyeing his first win in the Pre mile in his sixth try. The foes are formidable, including the top two milers since Rio — Kenyans Timothy Cheruiyot and Elijah Manangoi — Norwegian brothers Filip and Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, who on March 3 broke the 22-year-old indoor mile world record. Nobody has been within four seconds of the outdoor mile word record (Hicham El Guerrouj‘s 3:43.13 in 1999) since 2007.

Yomif Kejelcha from Ethiopia broke the world indoor mile record when he clocked three minutes 47.01 seconds during an invitational meet in Boston on Sunday.

The 21-year-old smashed the 22-year-old record of 3:48.45 set by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in 1997.

Kejelcha had come within one hundredth of a second of the record when he clocked 3:48.46 at the Millrose Games in New York last month.

The twice world indoor 3,000 meters champion was also targeting the indoor 1,500m record but narrowly missed it with a 3:31.25.

This makes Kejelcha, who is coached by Alberto Salazar, the third-fastest in the 1500m behind compatriot Samuel Tefera's February world record of 3:31.04 and El Guerrouj's 3:31.18

Eariler in the week Oregon live reported, “As promised, Nike Oregon Project coach Alberto Salazar has declared the NOP’s Yomif Kejelcha will be running for a world indoor record in the 1,500 meters -- and, possibly, the mile -- in the Bruce Lehane Invitational Mile Sunday at Boston University.

Salazar said making a world-record assault public puts pressure on the runner making the attempt, but also causes the runner to focus. And, he thinks, world-record attempts create the kind of publicity and attention the sport needs.

"If we’re going for a record in Boston, people are going to know," Salazar said then. “If we say we’re going for it, we’ll go for it.”

He told DyeStat’s Doug Binder on Wednesday that Kejeclha is fit and ready.

“He likes the 1,500 (meters), but I think the mile is more prestigious,” Salazar told Binder. “He’s going for the 1,500 record, and afterwards just hopes to maintain so he can get the mile as well.”

This is how the race in Boston unfolded as described by the IAAF. 

Kejelcha followed three different pacemakers for the opening laps and passed through 809m in 1:52. Worried the pace wasn't quick enough, he moved past the final pacemaker about two minutes into the race and was then out in front alone.

He was inside 2:51 with two laps remaining and kept up his swift pace for the last 400 metres. The clock had already ticked over to 3:31 by the time he passed the 1500m checkpoint, but he – and the eager fans – would have to wait until after the race to find out his official split. His immediate concern was reaching the finish line of the mile.

Kejelcha dug in deep and crossed the line in 3:47.01, taking 1.44 seconds off the previous world indoor record set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1997. Moments later, his 1500m split was confirmed at 3:31.25, making him the third-fastest indoor performer in history behind Tefera and El Guerrouj.

Kejelcha's mile time is also an outright Ethiopian record, bettering the outdoor mark of 3:48.60 set by Aman Wote.

America's Johnny Gregorek (second photo)  finished second in 3:49.98, moving to sixth on the world indoor all-time list, just 0.09 shy of Bernard Lagat's North American indoor record.  This is the seventh best time by an American Indoor or outdoors according to LetsRun.  

Nine of this season's 11 IAAF World Indoor Tour titles will be up for grabs when the six-meeting series concludes with the PSD Bank Meeting in Dusseldorf on Wednesday (20) night, but none will be as eagerly anticipated and as closely watched as the battle for the men's 1500m when Samuel Tefera returns to the track just four days after his sensational world record-breaking run in Birmingham.

The Ethiopian teenager shocked the world when he prevailed in a tactical race to win the world indoor title one year ago, but when he returned to the same Arena Birmingham track last Saturday, few expected the 19-year-old to take down a record set in 1997 - more than two years before he was born - by the all-time great Hicham El Guerrouj. But he did, clocking 3:31.04 to clip 0.14 from the Moroccan’s mark with a convincing victory over pre-meet favourite Yomif Kejelcha.

Here in Dusseldorf, Tefera will be running for another fast time as well as series honours. He trails Kenyan Bethwell Birgen by one point in the standings with 23; so long as he finishes ahead of the Kenyan, he'll take home the US$20,000 prize bonus and a wildcard entry for the IAAF World Indoor Championships Nanjing 2020.

The field also includes all three of Norway's Ingebrigtsen brothers, Filip, Hendrik and Jakob, setting up an intriguing head-to-head with the latter, another teenager, who famously cruised to the European 1500 and 5000m titles last August.

The 18-year-old has raced once this season, clocking a 3:36.21 national record eight days ago. Given the largely solo nature of that run, it's clear he can run faster. 

Samuel Tefera from Ethiopia upstaged compatriot Yomif Kejelcha to break the indoor 1500m record at the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting in Birmingham England on Saturday Feb 16.  The record has stood for over twenty years.  

Kejelcha, who last week came within 0.01 of the world indoor mile record, had announced his intentions to break the 1500m mark ahead of his race in Birmingham. The pacemakers hit their required target times, taking Kejelcha through 800m in 1:52.70 and 2:49.28 at 1200m.

But Tefera, the world indoor champion at the distance, was tucked right behind Kejelcha and looked ominously comfortable with the pace. The clock ticked through 3:03 as the bell sounded for the final lap and Tefera made his move, kicking past Kejelcha to take the lead.

Tefera charged towards the line and stopped the clock at 3:31.04, taking 0.14 off the previous record set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1997.

Kejelcha finished second in a personal best of 3:31.58.

Top photo by Mark Shearman 

Britain’s Laura Muir will compete in the women’s mile with an eye on Kirsty Wade’s 31-year-old British record of 4:23.86. Following her victory at the SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships over 3000m and her Scottish indoor record over 800m in Torun, Muir’s race will be one of the highlights of the meet.

Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha’s next race on the track will be greatly anticipated as he will run the 1500m with Hicham El Guerrouj’s 22-year world indoor 1500m record of 3:31.18 under threat.

Among the Olympic champions in action are Rio 2016 double gold medallist Elaine Thompson and Katerina Stefanidi who will feature in highly competitive women’s 60m and women’s pole vault fields respectively.

Furthermore, five 2018 world indoor champions return to the venue including Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera over 1500m, in addition to Kejelcha and Stefanidi, and men’s and women’s long jump champions Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba and Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic.

World number two in 2019 following his 6.53 clocking in Berlin two weeks ago, Reece Prescod goes in the men’s 60m, taking on world indoor silver medallist Su Bingtian of China. Newly-crowned British champion Dominic Ashwell and second-place Adam Thomas will have a last chance to chase European Indoor championship qualifying times.

The two-time world indoor 3000m champion won the mile at the recent Millrose Games in 3:48.46, just 0.01 outside Hicham El Guerrouj’s world indoor record set in 1997, six months before Kejelcha was born.

The Ethiopian will be targeting another one of El Guerrouj’s marks in Birmingham: the world indoor 1500m record of 3:31.18. El Guerrouj recorded that time just 10 days before his world indoor mile record, so given that Kejelcha is in near identical form as the Moroccan during his record-breaking run in 1997, the 21-year-old stands a good chance of taking down the mark in the shorter distance.

There will be tough opposition, too, including the three other men who have won 1500m races in this year’s World Indoor Tour: Torun winner and world indoor champion Samuel Tefera, Madrid winner Bethwel Birgen, and Karlsruhe winner Vincent Kibet.

One week after coming within a whisker of the world indoor mile record, Yomif Kejelcha will be one of the biggest focal points of the Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham when he lines up for the 1500m at the penultimate IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting of 2019 on Saturday

Yomif Kejelcha, the 21-year-old Ethiopian middle distance runner, is attempting the world record in the Wanamaker mile on Saturday, February 9 at the Millrose Games at the Armoury Track in New York City. 

The Nike Oregon Project athlete announced on Friday that he believes he’s capable of a 3:48 mile, and that the field of men he’s racing against can help him get there. The record is currently 3:48.45 and held by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco. Last year Edward Cheserek, who is also in Saturday’s field, ran the second fastest indoor mile mark in history, hitting 3:49.44 at the Valentine Invitational in Boston. 

Clayton Murphy, who just set the world record for the 800m on an indoor flat track will also be running Saturday. Murphy, who also trains with the Nike Oregon Project, ran a 1:45.92 on Saturday at JDL Fast Track in North Carolina. American Ajee Wilson also set an indoor flat-track world record yesterday, running a 1:59.26 800m at the same meet. 

My Best Runs will be there to cover the action.

Eliud Kipchoge versus Mo Farah in the Virgin Money London Marathon on April 28 is one of the tastiest head-to-heads of the year – and it is a race the Briton can win.

Kipchoge has won 10 of his 11 marathons, including three times in London and at the Olympics in Rio. His most recent victory – in Berlin last September – saw him set a world record of 2:01:39. At the Breaking2 time trial in Monza in 2017, he ran even faster, too, with 2:00:25 – a performance just one second per mile short of a hallowed sub-two-hour clocking.

The Kenyan has been described, with good reason, as the greatest marathoner in history. So how can Farah hope to beat him?

For starters, not only did Farah smash the European record with 2:05:11 in Chicago in October, but he looked supremely smooth and strong the entire way. In the world of marathoning, he is on the upward curve whereas Kipchoge’s bubble will inevitably burst sometime.

Farah’s career has also got stronger over time. In 2003, while Kipchoge was out-kicking Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele to win the world 5000m title in Paris, Farah won a mere silver at the European Under-23 Championships behind fellow Brit Chris Thompson.

Then there is home support. Farah is a Londoner and has a long history with the London Marathon. The first time his name appeared in Athletics Weekly, after all, was in 1995 when he came 10th in the Mini London Marathon aged 12.

Farah will also not be fazed by Kipchoge. He has beaten him too many times over the years to be totally intimidated by him.

Farah freely admitted in 2018 that Kipchoge is a stronger marathon runner, but the Briton knows he’s come out on plenty of occasions in the past.

In fact, the duo have a long history of clashes. Back in 2007, Farah beat Kipchoge over 3km on the roads at the Great North Run weekend. On the track, in the world 5000m final in 2009, Kipchoge and Farah were separated by less than a second in fifth and seventh in a race won by Bekele. When Farah set a British 5000m record of 12:53.11 in Monaco in 2011, Kipchoge was back in sixth.

Bernard Lagat, at the age of 43, with two Olympic medals and five world titles to his name would have every reason to walk away from his beloved sport feeling proud. Instead, he wants to achieve more.  The 2018 New York City Marathon will be Lagat’s debut at the distance.  The Kenyan American has the second best record in history at 1,500 meters. Today, this nationalized Kenyan American athlete in 2004 is best known for all the achievements he has achieved at an age when many others have long since retired from the world of athletics. But the truth is that Bernard Lagat has earned the respect of all fans of athletics for their brands in recent years and for still running at an elite level at age 43. Lagat is the American record holder in the 1500m and mile indoors, as well as the 1500m, 3000m, and 5000m outdoors, and is the Kenyan record holder at 1500m outdoors. Lagat is the second fastest 1500m runner of all time, behind Hicham El Guerrouj. Lagat is a five-time Olympian, having competed in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 games, and is a thirteen-time medalist in World Championships and Olympics including five gold medals. Going into the Rio Olympics with the age of 41, in the 5000m, he finished 5th among 16 starters

The King of The Marathon Part One: an inside look into the life of Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge. Eliud was born May 11, 1984 in a village called Kapsisiywa in Nandi county, Kenya.  His mother worked as a teacher. He lost his father while still young and this forced him to start looking after cattle and sell milk to help support his family. 

As a child, Eliud ran solely as a form of transport so he could get to and from school. The best athlete on the road who looks very discipline, relaxed, humble and full of wisdom today did not get past zonal level in school which is far from nationals. Due to his love for athletics, he went to his neighbor Patrick Sang, 1992 Olympics silver medalist in 3000m steeplechase, and asked for a training program. 

Sang had returned to Kapsisiywa to organize sport events after winning the Olympic silver medal while studying at the University of Texas.  He met Eliud at one of the events he organized in 2001 when Eliud was 16. 

"There was this kid who would come and ask me for a training program," Sang remembers.  "Every two weeks I would give him a program to follow and this went on for months."  Currently Patrick Sang is Eliud Kipchoge's coach. 

"Patrick is a friend and a mentor. He changed my life," said Eliud who followed systematically Sang's advice. Through his dedication and commitment to running, doors opened for Eliud Kipchoge in 2003 when he won gold for Kenya at the World Championships in Paris. 

He out sprinted Hicham El Guerrouj who was the world record holder in the mile.  Eliud was just 18 at the time. He raced on the track, 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and 10000m with great success. (Photo 2003 World Championships 5000m).  The track build his speed and he graduated to the marathon after a few years. 

"Running is like stairs, you gain experience and maturity in every step." Kipchoge told me in February 2018 in Eldoret. Kipchoge trains in a training camp called Global based in Kaptagat.  Tomorrow in part two we will talk about his move to the roads, his training, why he has never sustained a serious injury and how he deals with pain.  

Caster Semenya and Carina Horn struck a blow for South African female athletics when they both breached magical barriers at Friday evening’s Diamond League meeting in Doha. The opening meeting of the 2018 Diamond League series saw Semenya break through four minutes in the 1500m while Horn became the first South African female to dip below 11 seconds in the 100 metres. Semenya stuck it to the IAAF on Friday night when she smashed the South African record she set at the Commonwealth Games last month by clocking a 3:59.92. Semenya could be affected by the new controversial female classification rules the IAAF introduced on April 26 and will go into effect on November 1. The amended regulations will attempt to regulate women who naturally produce testosterone levels above five nanomoles per litre and are limited to athletes that compete in events ranging from the 400m to the mile.  (The men’s world record for 1500m is held by Hicham El Guerrouj of 3:26.00 in Rome in 1998.)