Running News Daily

Dina Asher-Smith, Katarina Johnson-Thompson opt out of World Indoor Championships to focus on Olympics

Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson are among a group of Team GB athletes who have opted out of competing in the World Indoor Championships to focus on their preparations for the Olympics.

Other athletes who have chosen not to compete include Zharnel Hughes and Keely Hodgkinson as they focus on the summer.

That leaves Josh Kerr and Laura Muir to top the bill in Great Britain's squad for the World Indoor Championships.

World 1500m champion Kerr will race in the 3000m in Glasgow next month as he kicks off his own preparations for the Olympics in Paris this summer.

Fellow Scot Muir, who won 1500m silver at the Tokyo Games, will also run in the 3000m at the championships which run from March 1-3.

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Molly Caudery (pole vault), Morgan Lake (high jump) and Jemma Reekie (800m) are also included in the squad.

Paula Dunn, Olympic head coach, said: "We are pleased to be announcing such a strong team and I am looking forward to seeing how the team perform on the world stage.

"We had a thrilling National Championships where athletes secured their places for the team in Scotland and it was fantastic to see a number of athletes stepping up when it counted.

"This is a really exciting squad that includes global medallists as well as athletes who will be hoping to make an impact on the world stage for the first time.

"Once World Athletics have finalised the final road to Glasgow rankings later this week, those athletes who have the required ranking and have met the UKA requirements outlined in the selection policy will be announced and we look forward to confirming our home championship team for next month."

Kerr and Muir head host nation team for Glasgow

World champion Josh Kerr and Olympic silver medalist Laura Muir are among the athletes selected to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24.

World leader Molly Caudery is also on the host nation team for the event taking place at the Glasgow Arena from 1-3 March.

Kerr, who won world 1500m gold at the World Championships in Budapest last year, will contest the 3000m. Olympic 1500m silver medallist Muir, who claimed 1500m silver and 3000m bronze at the 2018 World Indoor Championships, will also race the 3000m in Glasgow.

Caudery heads to the event as the current world leader in the pole vault following her 4.85m PB clearance at the UK Indoor Championships on Saturday.

They will be joined in Glasgow by athletes including Jemma Reekie, who sits second on this season’s top list with the 1:58.24 she ran to win the national 800m title on Sunday, plus 60m hurdlers Cindy Sember and David King, high jumper Morgan Lake and sprinter Jeremiah Azu.

The full team will be confirmed once world rankings places have been finalised.

British team for Glasgow

Women

400m:Laviai Nielsen

800m: Isabelle Boffey, Jemma Reekie

1500m: Georgia Bell, Revee Walcott-Nolan

3000m: Laura Muir

60m hurdles: Cindy Sember

High jump: Morgan Lake

Pole vault: Molly Caudery

4x400m: Hannah Brier, Hannah Kelly, Jessie Knight, Laviai Nielsen, Lina Nielsen, Ama Pipi

Men

60m: Jeremiah Azu

1500m: Callum Elson, Adam Fogg

3000m: Josh Kerr

60m hurdles: David King, Tade Ojora.

Josh Kerr and Jemma Reekie Secure Scottish Sweep at New Balance 5th Avenue Mile

New York, September 10, 2023 – World champion and Olympic medalist Josh Kerr and Olympian Jemma Reekie won the men’s and women’s professional athlete races at the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday, making it the third consecutive year it was a Scottish sweep. It was the first title on Manhattan’s famous thoroughfare for Kerr, and the second for Reekie, who also won in 2021.

Kerr, fresh off winning a world title in the 1,500 meters last month, won in 3:47.9, the third fastest time in event history and fastest since 1995. Great Britain’s George Mills was second in 3:49.9, followed by New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish in third in 3:50.0. Vincent Ciattei was the top American, finishing fourth overall in 3:50.3.

“It's a very different effort to run a mile down the street in flats versus running around the oval with spikes,” Kerr said. “I didn't have the performance I wanted to have last year, so I wanted to make that right. It's nice to end the season on a high, and it's difficult to do at any point in anyone's career at the end of the year. I've been training and racing for a long time this year and I was glad to put on a performance like that today.”

Reekie took the tape in 4:19.4, more than two seconds faster than her winning time in 2021, and was followed by Ireland’s Sarah Healy in 4:20.0 and Great Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant in 4:20.6. 

Nikki Hiltz was the top American, finishing fourth in 4:20.7.“Running this mile is always so special to me,” Reekie said. “I won it back in 2021. Last year, I placed well again, and then this year I'm happy to be back winning. It's such a great event and it's always a fun event to come to.” 

The New Balance 5th Avenue Mile – the world’s most iconic road mile race since 1981 – stretches 20 blocks down Manhattan’s most famous thoroughfare.

More than 9,000 runners raced the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday. In addition to professional athlete and age-group heats, this year’s New Balance 5th Avenue Mile featured Back to School Mile heats for youth, a New Balance Run Your Way Mile for first-time marathoners using NYRR Coaching Lab, a George Sheehan Memorial Mile for seniors. Due to inclement weather, the NYPD and FDNY Mile, NYRR Road Mile Championships, and the Rising New York Road Runners Stage 1 races were cancelled.

Josh Kerr, Elle St. Pierre, and Nikki Hiltz to Headline Professional Athlete Field at New Balance 5th Avenue Mile

World champion Josh Kerr, U.S. Olympian Elle St. Pierre, and American mile record-holder Nikki Hiltz will headline a world-class professional athlete field that spans 14 different countries at the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday, September 10. The New Balance 5th Avenue Mile – the world’s most iconic road mile race since 1981 – stretches 20 blocks down Manhattan’s most famous thoroughfare.

Great Britain’s Kerr will arrive in New York fresh off winning a world title in the 1,500 meters in Budapest; he is in search of his first victory on 5th Avenue in his second appearance in the event. Kerr also owns an Olympic bronze medal in the 1,500 meters from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

“Winning the World Championships was the culmination of every step of running I’ve ever taken,” Kerr said. “Now, my confidence is higher than it’s ever been, and I have some unfinished business to take care of on 5th Avenue.”

Lining up against Kerr will be New Zealand’s 5,000-meter record-holder George Beamish, and an American contingent led by 2023 Falmouth Mile champion Johnny Gregorek, last year’s 1,500-meter national champion Cooper Teare, two-time 5th Avenue Mile podium finisher Sam Prakel, and U.S. Olympian Woody Kincaid.

In the women’s race, U.S. Olympian St. Pierre will make her return to New York for the first time since finishing as runner-up at the event in 2019. It will also be her first race back since giving birth in March.

“My preparation for the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile this time has been different, as I fit training around feedings, nap time, and playing with Ivan,” St. Pierre said. “But my body feels good, and the workouts have been solid. I’m excited to be back on 5th Avenue this weekend.”

She will be joined at the start line by Hiltz, Great Britain’s 2021 New Balance 5th Avenue Mile champion Jemma Reekie, Great Britain’s reigning 1,500-meter champion Katie Snowden, Mexican record-holder Laura Galvan, Australian record-holder Jessica Hull, Japanese record-holder Nozomi Tanaka, and Jamaican record-holder Adelle Tracey. Olympian Courtney Frerichs and four-time NCAA champion Dani Jones will also toe the line for the U.S.

In addition to professional athlete and age-group heats, this year’s New Balance 5th Avenue Mile will feature Back to School Mile heats for youth, a New Balance Run Your Way Mile for first-time marathoners using NYRR Coaching Lab, a George Sheehan Memorial Mile for seniors, an NYPD and FDNY heat for service members, and NYRR Road Mile Championship races.

In partnership with NYRR and USA Track & Field, NBC will broadcast the event nationally from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. ET. The broadcast will feature live coverage of the professional athlete races as well as a recap of the day’s earlier heats. Live coverage of the event will be available internationally on USATF.TV.

Ingebrigtsen and Girma go head-to-head in hunt for fast 1500m in Lausanne

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.

Giants of track and field prepare for battle at Millrose Games

print showdowns, the world’s greatest shot putters and magnificent mile fields highlight the Millrose Games, this season’s fourth World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, in New York on Saturday (11).

Fresh off a PB and 60m win in Boston, world 200m champion Noah Lyles takes on 60m world record holder and defending Millrose champion Christian Coleman at The Armory, which boasts the nickname ‘The Fastest Track in the World’.

Shot putters Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs open their 2023 campaigns by resuming their fierce rivalry, essentially picking up where they left off last September in Switzerland. As the women’s shot returns to Millrose for the first time since 2003, the event couldn’t ask for a better field led by Chase Ealey, the world champion and world indoor silver medallist.

According to tradition, the Rudin Wanamaker Miles cap the storied meeting, which was founded in 1908. A national record might be needed to win the men’s race, but which country will take the honours? Defending champion Ollie Hoare of Australia, USA’s Yared Nuguse, Sam Tanner of New Zealand and Mario Garcia Romo of Spain are top contenders. Great Britain’s Olympic and world medallist Laura Muir is the favourite in the women’s mile, having already claimed a New York record on the road.

Straight down the middle

Although The Armory is far from the neon lights of Times Square, it’s still a hop, step and a jump from Broadway – and perhaps no athlete enjoys putting on a show more than Lyles.

At the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Boston, he posted a PB of 6.51, edging Trayvon Bromell by .002. Coleman clocked 6.71 in Fayetteville two weeks ago to open his season, well off his world record of 6.34 set in 2018 when he was also world indoor champion. Lyles, the Olympic 200m bronze medallist, has been working on his start in a bid to double in the 100m and 200m at the World Athletics Championships later this year in Budapest.

Lyles will also attempt to avenge an early season loss to his younger brother Josephus in Florida. Ronnie Baker, the third-fastest 60m runner in history and 2018 world indoor bronze medallist, won this event in 2018 and 2020. Ackeem Blake of Jamaica, Miles Lewis, the Puerto Rican record-holder, and Kendal Williams, who defeated Lyles in Florida but lost to him in Boston, are also in the field.

Aleia Hobbs is seeking her second straight win in the women’s 60m after exploding to a meeting record 7.02 in Boston. She also owns the world-leading time of 6.98, run in Fayetteville in late January. In Boston, Hobbs held off world indoor silver medallist Mikiah Brisco and Celera Barnes, who get another chance to defeat her at Millrose.

Melissa Jefferson, who edged Hobbs in the 100m at last year’s USA Championships; world indoor bronze medallist Marybeth Sant-Price, and English Gardner are also in the field. Shawnti Jackson was third at Millrose last year, setting a national high school record of 7.18, and will look to improve both her placement and her time.

Olympic silver medallist Keni Harrison, the Millrose 60m hurdles winner in 2020, will take on 2019 world champion Nia Ali, heptathlete Anna Hall, and Olympians Anna Cockrell, Devynne Charlton and Cindy Sember.

Ring rivalry renewed

The road to Budapest begins for the top shot putters on the planet. World and Olympic champion Crouser will face Kovacs, a double outdoor world champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist.

While Crouser has won at Millrose three years in a row and holds both the indoor and outdoor world records, he knows his compatriot is always in the hunt to topple him. Kovacs set the world-leading mark in 2022 while moving to second on the all-time list and winning the Diamond league final in Zurich. At the season-ending meeting for both, Kovacs won at Bellinzona with a toss of 22.19m, with Crouser next at 22.00m. Tripp Piperi and Nick Ponzio of Italy round out the field.

Ealey had a dream season in 2022, building on her world indoor silver to take the world title in Oregon and then capture the Diamond League title. Compatriots Maggie Ewen, the 2021 Diamond League champion, and Jessica Woodard will challenge Ealey for the first Millrose crown in 20 years, along with Canada’s Commonwealth champion Sarah Mitton.

The women’s pole vault features Katie Moon (formerly Nageotte) and Katerina Stefanidi, the last two Olympic gold medallists. However, in their previous meeting, the Greek vaulter was third and the Tokyo champion placed fourth in Boston, with Bridget Williams and Gabriela Leon going 1-2. All four athletes will be on the runway at Millrose.

Steiner seeks another record

The rarely run 300m has become something of a specialty for USA’s Abby Steiner. She already holds the NCAA record and is targeting the national record of 35.71 in her first indoor season as a professional. Two weekends ago, Steiner raced to a 400m victory in Fayetteville in 50.59. The world record of 35.45 is shared by Irina Privalova and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, with the Bahamian clocking her winning time in 2018 at Millrose. Jenna Prandini, Steiner’s teammate on the victorious 4x100m relay in Oregon, and 2019 world 200m silver medallist Brittany Brown offer strong competition.

The men’s 400m could be another duel between USA’s Noah Williams and Trinidad & Tobago’s world indoor champion Jereem Richards. In Boston, both clocked 45.88, but Williams surged on the inside to win by .004. Michael Cherry, fourth in the 400m in Tokyo and an Olympic and world gold medallist at 4x400m, opens his season at Millrose, along with the fourth man in the field, Bryce Deadmon, another Olympic and world gold medallist on relays.

Going the distance

The great Paavo Nurmi raced at the Millrose Games nearly 100 years ago and the distance races never disappoint. Of course, the signature event is the Rudin Wanamaker Mile.

After recently setting a North American indoor record over 3000m, Yared Nuguse is in a New York state of mind to break another continental record: Bernard Lagat’s 3:49.89 in the indoor mile. Nuguse and training partners Hoare and Romo are hoping for a fast pace to propel them into the record books. Hoare set an Oceanian record of 3:50.83 in winning the 2022 Wanamaker Mile and is the Commonwealth 1500m champion. Other contenders include Tanner, a three-time New Zealand champion; Great Britain’s Neil Gourley, whose home straight sprint led to a world-leading 3:52.84 in Boston; 2022 US indoor 1500m champion Cole Hocker, Johnny Gregorek, Sam Prakel and Kenya’s Eliud Kipsang.

Muir had a US indoor race debut in Boston, clocking 8:40.34 in the 3000m, and now is dropping back down to more familiar territory. The world and Olympic medallist in the 1500m set a course record of 4:14.8 on the road in the Fifth Avenue Mile in 2022. At Millrose, the record is 4:16.85, set by Elle Purrier St Pierre in 2020, which is the third-fastest indoor mile in history after Gudaf Tsegay’s 4:16.16 in Torun. In a deep field, Muir will be challenged by training partner and Olympic 800m finalist Jemma Reekie, and US champion Sinclaire Johnson.

In the men’s 3000m, Geordie Beamish and Cooper Teare, who went 1-2 last year, return to the Armory track where they will try to fend off Josh Kerr, the Olympic 1500m bronze medallist; Joe Klecker, Guatemala’s Luis Grijalva and Nico Young.

Alicia Monson, defending Millrose champion in the women’s 3000m, faces national indoor 5000m record-holder Elise Cranny with Karissa Schweizer’s national indoor 3000m record of 8:25.70 in their sights. Monson set a Millrose Games and Armory record last year of 8:31.62 en route to a stellar outdoor season. Katelyn Tuohy recently set an NCAA mile record of 4:24.26 in a race won by Monson; she’s primed for another test against the pros. European champion and 2019 world bronze medallist Konstanze Klosterhalfen won the Wanamaker mile in 2019 and has the fastest 3000m time in the field, clocking 8:20.07 outdoors.

Streaks at stake for Wilson

In the 600m, world indoor 800m champion Ajee’ Wilson will attempt to extend some impressive winning streaks.

Since losing to Alysia Montano in the 600m at the 2013 Millrose Games, she has won 17 straight races at The Armory, including seven at Millrose. She also has won 15 straight races indoors, most recently the 800m in Boston with a time of 2:00.45. Wilson is the second-fastest woman in history in the 600m outdoors and could threaten Keely Hodgkinson’s newly minted world indoor best of 1:23.41. The fastest performer in the field this season Shamier Little, the 2015 world silver medallist in the 400m hurdles, who clocked 1:24.65. 

The men’s 800m will be a rematch between world indoor silver medallist Noah Kibet, still just 18 years of age, and world indoor bronze medallist Bryce Hoppel, the defending Millrose champion. The loaded field includes his compatriots Clayton Murphy, the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, world indoor finalist Isaiah Harris, Great Britain’s Kyle Langford, Mexico’s Tonatiu Lopez and Irish record-holder Mark English. Cade Flatt, the second-fastest US high school runner at this distance, is also in the field.

Laura Muir headlines Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile

Laura Muir will race the Rudin Women’s Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games when she makes her debut at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in New York on February 11.

Muir won her long-awaited Olympic silver medal in Tokyo, then backed it up with a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. The 29-year-old is a six-time European gold medallist, two-time Diamond League champion and the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion in the 1500m. In total, she holds six British records indoors and outdoors.

Muir blasted a 4:14.8 road mile last September at her most recent race in New York City, setting the course record for the 5th Avenue Mile. The Wanamaker Mile event record of 4:16.85 was set by Elinor Purrier St. Pierre in 2020, that mark also being the US record and second-fastest indoor mile in history.

“This will be my first time racing at the Millrose Games, so I am really excited as it has been a competition that I have wanted to do for a long time,” said Muir, who will also compete at the World Indoor Tour Gold meetings in Boston and Birmingham. “I have very fond memories of racing in the city, and I cannot wait to return and tackle the same distance indoors.”

As always, the Wanamaker Mile will feature a deep field of talented runners hungry for an upset victory. Athletes to watch include US 1500m champion Sinclaire Johnson, British indoor mile record-holder Jemma Reekie, Josette Norris, Sage Hurta-Klecker, Nikki Hiltz, Medina Eisa, Allie Wilson, Lucia Stafford, Sintayehu Vissa, Marta Pen Freitas and Helen Schlachtenhaufen.

These are the latest stars announced for the Millrose Games, joining the showdowns in the pole vault between Katie Moon, Sandi Morris and Katerina Stefanidi, and in the shot put, featuring Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs. The women's 300m will feature Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini and Brittany Brown, and the women’s 3000m will star Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Alicia Monson. In the men’s 60m, two-time world 200m champion Noah Lyles will race for more sprint success.

Laura Muir Storms To European 1500m Title

With a savage move about 25 meters before taking the bell, Britain’s Laura Muir overwhelmed the field here at Olympic Stadium tonight and successfully defended her European Athletics 1500m title.  Muir, a Scotswoman, ran the final lap in 60.4 seconds and won in 4:01.08.  Her victory tonight came just 12 days after she won the Commonwealth Games title at the same distance.

“Physically I’m not too bad, but mentally, oh my God that was hard,” Muir told reporters.  “I’m used to feeling tired, I’m used to training and racing, but that was something else.”

When Muir, 29, consulted with her coach Andy Young before the race they both agreed that her ability to jump the field late in the race was her best weapon.  So, she immediately dropped to the back of the twelve-woman field after the gun to save energy, then waited for two laps to go before moving to the front.  Ireland’s Ciara Mageean shadowed her closely, and Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui tried to stay close.  Muir was only just beginning her wind-up.

“Speaking with Andy, we knew I could run the last lap faster than anybody else,” Muir explained.  “So, if I was tired the best –the safest– way to run it was to do that.”

But Mageean would not give up so easily.  She had planned for this exact kind of race.

“It’s funny visualizing different types of races, and in my 20 minute warm-up that’s exactly what I visualized,” Mageean told Race Results Weekly.  “Laura’s probably going to go, and in my mind she’s going to go a little sooner than at Commonwealth Games; she’s going to go earlier, which she did.  I said to myself, you be her shadow.”

Coming down the homestretch the penultimate time, Muir switched on the afterburners even before getting to the bell.  Mageean reacted immediately and stayed close, but Ennaoui was too far back to catch up (she would have to settle for bronze in 4:03.59).  Mageean was still close as she and Muir rounded the final bend, but Muir was just too fast.

“I thought going up the home straight that maybe I was going to have her, but she’s just got a little bit more strength than me,” said Mageean, who ran a season’s best 4:02.56.  “Laura’s a 3:55 runner and I’m just not there yet.”

With her gold medal tonight, Muir won medals at all three of this summer’s major championships.  At the World Athletics Championships in Eugene she took bronze in the 1500m, and at the Commonwealth Games she won the 1500m and took bronze in the 800m.

“I really wanted to win; to get a medal at Worlds as well I’m so pleased,” Muir said.

There was more success for the British team today in the semi-finals of the 800m.

During the morning session all the medal favorites advanced to the final of the women’s 800m, including all three British women who ran today.  In the first of two heats, Olympic and World Championships silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson got the win in 2:00.67 and confirmed her status as the gold medal favorite.  She finished comfortably ahead of Poland’s Anna Wielgosz (2:01.05) and Ireland’s Louise Shanahan (2:01.15).

“I’m just really happy to have got through,” Hodgkinson told the British Athletics media team.  “I’m tired, but I’m taking it race by race. I could have taken it on, but the Polish girl set the pace which certainly helped me, so I’m just pleased to have got the job done.”

Frenchwoman Renelle Lamote narrowly won the second heat over Hodgkinson’s British teammate Jemma Reekie, 2:00.23 to 2:00.30.  A third British woman, Alex Bell, got third in 2:00.53 putting three British women into the final.

“It’s great to see all three of us through,” said Bell who finished sixth in the Commonwealth Games 800m.  “I think even though I have been racing for so long, it’s only been this season that races are stressing me less when it gets bargy and clumpy and trippy. In the past I have panicked at that point, so I am just conserving more energy, because the more composed you are the more energy you save.”

Much to the delight of the German fans here, Christina Hering advanced on time by finishing fourth in the second heat in 2:00.86.

“WOW,” Hering wrote on her Instagram just after the race.  “Home crowd gave me wings.”

In the men’s 800 semi-finals tonight, reigning world 1500m champion Jake Wightman advanced to the final by going from fifth place to second place in the homestretch of heat two, stopping the clock in 1:46.61.  The Scotsman finished behind Spain’s Mariano Garcia (1:46.52) and just ahead of Ireland’s Mark English whom Wightman passed in the final 20 meters.

Although he made the final, Wightman wasn’t happy with his performance.

“I didn’t run good there,” he told the British Athletics media team. “I think the one thing I am taking from it is I must be pretty fit because tactically I was all over the place, but I was still able to get through. I hope I don’t get lane one in the final as I didn’t run too well from there.”

The first heat went slow, and Poland’s Patryk Dobek (the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist) only managed to finish fourth in the final sprint and did not make the final.  Instead, Sweden’s Andreas Kramer (1:48.37), Italy’s Simone Barontini (1:48.51) and France’s Benjamin Robert (same time as Barontini). Moved on to the final.  Kramer performed a deft move in the final 50 meter, slicing through the center of the field to get the win.

“I just waited for it, because I didn’t want to disturb anyone,” Kramer told Race Results Weekly.  “Just kicked and waited for the small opening.  Then when it came, I just went for it.”

In tonight’s other medal event within the distance disciplines, Finland’s Topi Raitanen fended off a triple attack from the Italian twins Osama and Ala Zoghlami and their teammate Ahmed Abdelwahed.  Raitanen, 26, helped set the early pace then allowed the Italians to lead the final laps before making his bid for victory.

“My strategy was to keep a decent pace, and everybody’s happy and nobody wants to push harder, so I saved some energy for the last laps,” Raitanen told Race Results Weekly.  “Italy guys, really strong guys, started to push the pace and I just knew that I needed to follow them and keep up, and just wait the last lap so everything is possible.”

Coming down the backstretch on the final lap, Raitanen moved to the lead then carefully took the final water jump.  He began to sense that victory would be his.

“After the last water jump I saw a small gap behind me and I really can take the medal,” he said.  “I was just taking it really, really carefully and not fall down.  A couple of meters and I was watching the screen and I still had a small gap behind me and I know I can win.”

Hodgkinson and Muir lead the British charge in the middle and long distances in Munich 2022

For Keely Hodgkinson, another silver lining would come as nothing close to consolation at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships from 15-21 August, part of the wider multisport European Championships from 11-21 August.

Having finished in the runner-up position in the 800m finals at the World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games in the past three weeks - and in the Olympic final in Tokyo a year ago, for that matter – the 20-year-old Briton will be on a redemption run for gold in the Bavarian capital.

After missing out by a tantalising 0.08 in a titanic home straight tussle with Athing Mu at the World Championships in Oregon on 22 July, Hodgkinson had Commonwealth gold within her grasp on home ground in Birmingham last Saturday (6) until Kenya’s Mary Moraa came charging past halfway down the home straight.

It is a measure of the meteoric progress Hodgkinson has made under the guidance of Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows that major championship silver medals have come as a disappointment. It was only last year that she made her senior breakthrough, winning the European Indoor title in Torun at the age of 19.

First place in an outdoor European 800m final would be one better than her co-coach managed. Meadows finished second to Yvonne Hak of the Netherlands in Barcelona 2010 albeit after initial winner Mariya Savinova was disqualified for an anti-doping violation.

There have been two British winners of the two-lap event: Lynsey Sharp in Helsinki in 2012 - again retroactively - and the great Lillian Board in Athens in 1969. A third British success in Munich would be a poignant one, given the prodigiously talented Board’s tragic fate.

A 400m silver medalist at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, she was cruelly cut down by cancer before she had a shot at 800m gold at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. After traveling to Munich in search of a cure, she died in a clinic in the city in December 1970, 13 days past her 22nd birthday.

Second fastest on the 800m entry-list - both in personal and season’s bests - is Hodgkinson’s British teammate Jemma Reekie. The 24-year-old Scot finished fourth in the Olympic final last year but has been struggling for form this summer in the wake of glandular fever, placing fifth in the Commonwealth 1500m final last Sunday (7).

Three other women in the field have run inside 1:59 this year: Slovenia’s former 400m specialist Anita Horvat, who finished a surprise seventh in the World Championships; France’s Renelle Lamote, silver medalist at the last two European Championships; and Elena Bello of Italy.

Switzerland also boasts two potential medal contenders: in 18-year-old world U20 silver medallist Audrey Werro, who clocked 1:59.53 in that race in Cali, and Lore Hoffmann, who narrowly missed out on a place in the final in Oregon.

Ukrainians Nataliya Krol (formerly Pryshchepa) and Olha Lyakhova, who won gold and bronze in Berlin 2018, are also on the entry-list but neither athlete has broken the sub-2:00 barrier so far in 2022.

A fourth major 1500m medal in 12 months beckons for Muir

Hodgkinson’s compatriot Laura Muir defends the 1500m crown she gained in Berlin four years ago in buoyant mood, having collected world bronze and Commonwealth gold at the distance in successive weeks, together with Commonwealth 800m bronze.

The Scot’s closest challengers are likely to be Poland’s fast-finishing Sofia Ennaoui, who took silver behind Muir in 2018 and who showed a timely return to form with fifth place in the Oregon final, and Ireland’s Ciara Mageean, who was an impressive runner-up to Muir in the colors of Northern Ireland in last Sunday’s Commonwealth final.

Another Scot who struck gold on the Commonwealth stage in Birmingham, Eilish McColgan, is entered for both the 5000m and 10,000m in Munich.

A stunning winner of the 10,000m in Birmingham, and silver medalist in the 5000m, the 31-year-old is due to tackle her third championship double in less than a month, having placed tenth in the 10,000m and eleventh in the 5000m at the World Championships.

McColgan, who is preparing to make her marathon debut in London in October, is as indefatigable as her celebrated mother and coach Liz, the 1991 world 10,000m champion, but cumulative championship fatigue could well undermine her – particularly in the 5000m.

Norway’s Karoline Grovdal finished eighth in the World Athletics Championships final and the 2018 steeplechase bronze medalist, who also finished third in the 10,000m in 2016, could start the marginal favorite.

Weakened after a bout of coronavirus, Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen failed to make it beyond the 5000m heats in Eugene but should be in more robust form for her second home European Athletics Championships where she is planning to contest both the 5000m and 10,000m along with Turkey’s Yasemin Can.

Can completed a 5000/10,000m double in Amsterdam 2016 and will be contesting both events again in Munich. Other challengers to McColgan at the longer distance will be fellow Briton Jess Judd - who finished one place behind her, in eleventh, in the World Athletics Championships final - and reigning 10,000m champion Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel who won gold on a brutally hot and humid evening in Berlin four years ago.

Salpeter has set herself a challenging schedule as she will be attempting to defend her European title only one month after winning bronze in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon. 

GB boost team for World Champs

A number of athletes have been added to the British squad for the World Championships in Eugene following the publication of the “Road to Oregon 2022” qualification positions.

The athletes added are: high jumpers Emily Borthwick, Laura Zialor, Morgan Lake and Joel Clarke-Khan, long jumper Jazmin Sawyers, triple jumper Naomi Metzger, discus throwers Jade Lally and Nick Percy, shot putters Scott Lincoln and Amelia Strickler, sprint hurdler David King, 400m hurdler Chris McAlister, 400m runner Alex Haydock-Wilson, triple jumper Ben Williams and pole vaulter Molly Caudery.

Ellie Baker is also expected to be added to the team in the women’s 800m due to withdrawals from athletes ahead of her in the rankings.

However Callum Wilkinson has dropped out of the team in the 20km walk to focus instead on the Commonwealth Games.

The team is as follows:

Women:

100m: Dina Asher-Smith; Daryll Neita; Imani-Lara Lansiquot; 

200m: Dina Asher-Smith; Beth Dobbin; 

400m: Victoria Ohuruogu; Ama Pipi; Nicole Yeargin; 

800m: Alex Bell; Keely Hodgkinson; Jemma Reekie; Ellie Baker (subject to top 32 ranking); 

1500m: Melissa Courtney-Bryant; Laura Muir; Katie Snowden; 

5000m: Jessica Judd; Amy-Eloise Markovc; Eilish McColgan; 

10,000m: Jessica Judd; Eilish McColgan; 

3000m steeplechase: Lizzie Bird; Aimee Pratt; 

100m hurdles: Cindy Sember; 

400m Hurdles: Jessie Knight; Lina Nielsen; 

High jump: Emily Borthwick, Morgan Lake, Laura Zialor; 

Pole vault: Holly Bradshaw; Molly Caudery; 

Long jump: Lorraine Ugen; Jazmin Sawyers; 

Triple jump: Naomi Metzger; 

Shot put: Sophie McKinna; Amelia Strickler; 

Discus: Jade Lally; 

Heptathlon: Katarina Johnson-Thompson; 

4x100m: Dina Asher-Smith; Beth Dobbin; Imani-Lara Lansiquot; Daryll Neita; Ashleigh Nelson; Asha Philip; Bianca Williams; 

4x400m: Zoey Clark; Jessie Knight; Laviai Nielsen; Lina Nielsen; Victoria Ohuruogu; Ama Pipi; Nicole Yeargin; 

Marathon: Rose Harvey; Jess Piasecki; Charlotte Purdue.

Men:

100m: Zharnel Hughes; Reece Prescod; 

200m: Joe Ferguson; Adam Gemili; Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake; 

400m: Matthew Hudson-Smith; Alex Haydock-Wilson; 

800m: Max Burgin; Kyle Langford; Daniel Rowden; 

1500m: Neil Gourley; Josh Kerr; Jake Wightman; 

5000m: Sam Atkin; Andrew Butchart; Marc Scott; 

10,000m: Patrick Dever; 

110m hurdles: Andrew Pozzi; Josh Zeller; David King; 

400m hurdles: Alastair Chalmers; Chris McAlister; 

High jump: Joel Clarke-Khan; 

Pole vault: Harry Coppell; 

Triple jump: Ben Williams; 

Shot put: Scott Lincoln; 

Discus: Lawrence Okoye; Nick Percy; 

Hammer: Nick Miller; 

4x100m: Harry Aikines-Aryeetey; Jeremiah Azu; Jona Efoloko; Adam Gemili; Zharnel Hughes; Reece Prescod; Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake; 

Marathon: Josh Griffiths; Chris Thompson; 

Mixed 4x400m: Athletes already selected for the women’s 4x400m relay team will be available for selection for this event, plus: Joe Brier; Lewis Davey; Alex Haydock-Wilson.

Dina Asher-Smith will launch the defence of her 200m title at world championships

Dina Asher-Smith set for 200m defence as part of GB’s World Championships squad. 

The 26-year-old, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Keely Hodgkinson headline the 64-strong team for the competition in Eugene, Oregon, in July.

Asher-Smith won gold in Doha three years ago, having collected 100m silver, before going on to also secure silver in the 4x100m relay, and will look to improve on that haul in the United States.

She is expected to run at the Stockholm Diamond League meet on Thursday in her final race before the World Championships, which were rescheduled from last year after the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Outgoing Olympic head coach Christian Malcolm said: “We’ve seen a number of athletes step up on the global circuit so far this season, which has been really encouraging.

“We are confident that we’ve selected a team that optimises medal success and that have the ability to progress through rounds to reach finals.

“The World Championships is the start of a very busy summer of Championships and Games, so there are a number of opportunities for athletes to represent their country this summer.

“For those who have been selected for the team for Oregon, I wish the athletes and their coaches the best over the next week or so and to keep focus to achieve your goals.”

Daryll Neita, who reached last year’s Olympic 100m final and beat Asher-Smith in Manchester at the weekend to become British 100m champion, is also included for the 100m and 4x100m.

Despite winning the 200m at the British Championships on Sunday, however, 25-year-old Neita does not have the time for 200m qualification, with Asher-Smith joined by Beth Dobbin.

Johnson-Thompson missed the Manchester championships at the weekend but will look to defend the heptathlon world title she won in 2019.

The 29-year-old has been dogged by injury for 18 months since rupturing her Achilles in late 2020 and pulled out of the Olympics having suffered a calf problem in the heptathlon’s 200m.

Hodgkinson, who is expected to challenge American Athing Mu for 800m gold, is included along with Laura Muir, with the Scot aiming for her first World Championships outdoor medal after claiming 1500m silver in Tokyo last year.

Hodgkinson is joined in the 800m by Alex Bell and Jemma Reekie while Holly Bradshaw, who won Olympic bronze last year, will contest the pole vault.

Zharnel Hughes and Reece Prescod are Britain’s hopes in the men’s 100m with Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Adam Gemili in the 200m.

Prescod ran 9.93 seconds in Ostrava last month to leave him 11th fastest in the world this year but he remains well behind world lead Fred Kerley, who posted 9.76 seconds at the US trials at the weekend.

All four are in the men’s 4x100m relay squad, with Hughes and Mitchell-Blake aiming to ease their heartbreak having been stripped of their Olympic relay silver after CJ Ujah’s positive drugs test.

They are joined by Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, new British 100m champion Jeremiah Azu and Jona Efoloko.

Asher-Smith, Dobbin, Neita, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Ashleigh Nelson, Asha Philip and Bianca Williams make up the women’s 4x100m squad.

Max Burgin, the fastest man in the world over 800m this year, won the British title on Sunday to seal his place.

World Athletics will publish its final world rankings ahead of the Championships on Wednesday, meaning there are likely to be a number of additions to the squad based on rankings.

The World Championships sparks a frantic summer with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham starting days after the end of competition in Eugene and then the European Championships in Munich in August.

Scottish runners Jemma Reekie and Jake Wightman win 5th Avenue Mile

Athletes took to the streets of New York City on Sunday morning for the 5th Avenue Mile, one of the final races of the summer racing season.

It was the two Scottish runners who took the win, with Jemma Reekie taking the women’s race in 4:21.6 and Jake Wightman winning the men’s race in 3:49.6.

The women’s race

Alicia Monson took the lead early in the women’s race, gapping the field by several metres in the first half. The pack eventually reeled her in, and with one minute to go, Reekie, Hiltz and Van Buskirk began making a push for the finish.

With only a few metres left in the race, Reekie took over the lead, and after finishing 4th in Tokyo and 4th in the Diamond League final, she finally got her win. Hiltz finished in second place in 4:23.0 and Shannon Osika came third in 4:23.3. After making a strong push for a podium spot, Van Buskirk crossed the line in fourth in 4:23.9. Monson ended up in sixth in 4:25.4. Canada’s Julie-Anne Staehli finished in 11th in 4:29.1.

The men’s race

Wightman was the winner in a hotly-contested men’s race, where there was plenty of jostling for the lead over the 20-block race. Australia’s Oliver Hoare led in the early stages, but the rest of the pack were right on his heels. At about the 800m mark, Matthew Centrowitz made an aggressive move and created a sizeable gap on the field, but was unable to hold onto the lead.

Wightman cranked the pace up in the final meters of the race to take the win, followed by Hoare and Jake Heyward, also from the U.K., both in 3:50.4. Canada’s Charles Philibert-Thiboutot finished ninth in 3:53.2, and Centrowitz ended up in 14th in 3:56.4.

Cheruiyot Defeats Ingebrigtsen In Diamond League 1500m Final

At tonight's talent-packed Wanda Diamond League Final at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot evened the score with Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen by defeating the reigning Olympic 1500m champion by just 8/100ths of a second, reversing their finish places from Tokyo. With his victory tonight, Cheruiyot retained the Diamond League title he had earned in Brussels in 2019 and sent a signal that he'll be tough to beat at next summer's World Athletics Championships in Eugene where he will come in as reigning champion.

"That was good but a very tight race," Cheruiyot said. "I knew the standard was strong here, and I am happy."

In last month's Olympic final, Ingebrigtsen cleverly shadowed Cheruiyot throughout the race before overwhelming the Kenyan in the final sprint. Tonight, Cheruiyot took the lead from Australia's Stewart McSweyn at the bell, and held his lead through the final bend where Ingebrigtsen was still close behind. In the last 100 meters, Cheruiyot kept his signature forward-leaning form as he accelerated to the finish line in 3:31.37. Ingebrigtsen tied up in the final meters and had to settle for second in 3:31.45. McSweyn held on for third in 3:32.14 just ahead of his compatriot Oliver Hoare who ran a personal best 3:32.66.

"It is what it is," lamented Ingebrigtsen. "I am really happy with what I did in Tokyo. It is tough to go into races afterwards. So I am just happy to be done with this season and looking forward to the World Championships next year."

Cheruiyot, who nearly missed out on Olympic team selection after he only finished fourth at the Kenyan Olympic Trials, is also looking forward to 2022.

"I was having many challenges in Tokyo, so now I am getting better," he said referring to a pesky hamstring injury. "My hamstring is getting better and I am prepared for next season. My goal is that I know I need to defend my world title at next year's championships. That is my target now, but I need to work out (hard) because I know Jakob Ingebrigtsen is going to continue to get better."

In another epic rematch from Tokyo, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon out-sprinted Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan to win the women's 1500m in 3:58.33. Like in the men's race, Kipyegon was able to hold her form and run smoothly through the tape, while an exhausted-looking Hassan thrashed her way to second in 3:58.55. Hassan had defeated Kipyegon in the 2019 World Athletics Championships, but Kipyegon beat Hassan to third place in last month's Olympics. Their rivalry is sure to continue into next year.

"I was confident that in the last lap I could do better and it worked," Kipyegon said. "This is my second Diamond League trophy and my first as a mother. My family is watching tonight from home. I started my season well and I finished it well, I won almost all my competitions, especially the Olympic final. I am so grateful."

Kenyan men also won the 800m and 3000m steeplechase. In the two-lap event, reigning Olympic gold and silver medalists, Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich, finished in the same order again tonight. Rotich tried to win with a long drive from 250 meters out, but Korir --who was sprinting furiously-- passed him in the homestretch to win 1:44.56 to 1:44.96. American Clayton Murphy got third (1:45.21).

"I think it was tough today," said Korir. "But I managed to follow my strategy, tried to push it in the end and now I have this Trophy and I am very glad."

Benjamin Kigen upset Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco in the steeplechase by running away from the field on the backstretch of the final lap, hurdling the final water jump, then holding on in the homestretch before El Bakkali could catch him. Kigen clocked 8:17.45 to El Bakkali's 8:17.70.

"It was my wish to win today," said Kigen. "I am very happy now. Today was not a matter of time, but it was a matter of winning."

A Kenyan also won the women's steeplechase. Norah Jeruto, who did not compete in Tokyo despite being the fastest steeplechaser of the year (8:53.65), won a two-way battle over compatriot Hyvin Kiyeng on the final lap. The two women were even going into the last water jump, but Kiyeng landed flat-footed, lost her momentum, and Jeruto scampered away. Jeruto was clocked in 9:07.33 to Kiyeng's 9:08.55. Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs finished third in 9:08.74; her strong sprint got her past Ethiopia's Mekides Abebe and Kenya's Celliphine Chespol.

British teen Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800m silver medalist, added "Diamond League Champion" to her résumé tonight when she pulled away from Jamaica's Natoya Goule in the homestretch to win in 1:57.98. Gould looked safe for second, but a charging Kate Grace just edged her at the line (both women were timed in 1:58.34). Jemma Reekie, Hodgkinson's Olympic teammate, finished fourth in 1:58.61, the same position as the Tokyo Olympics.

All the event winners tonight earned provisional starting starting spots at next summer's World Athletics Championships (conditions apply) and earned USD 30,000.

Olympians and Past Champions will Headline New Balance 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday

To close out their seasons, 15 Tokyo Olympians, three Olympic medalists, and two past event champions will race down Manhattan’s most famous thoroughfare in the professional athlete heats at the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile on Sunday, September 12.

The 40th running of the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile – the world’s most iconic road mile race since 1981 – stretches 20 blocks along the east side of Central Park. In addition to age-group heats, there will be an NYPD/FDNY heat taking place to mark the 20th anniversary weekend of 9/11, a Back to School Mile for youth ages 12-18, a George Sheehan Memorial Mile for seniors and NYRR Road Mile Championship heats.

“The New Balance 5th Avenue Mile is an iconic race which invites people of all ages and abilities to run down one of the most famous streets in New York City,” said Ted Metellus, Vice President of Events, NYRR and Race Director, TCS New York City Marathon. “This year will be incredibly exciting with a number of Olympians joining us after their top performances in Tokyo, and we are looking forward to showcasing the city’s resiliency and honoring the work of those participating in the FDNY/NYPD heat to mark 20 years since 9/11.” 

The NYRR Road Mile Championships and professional athlete races will be live streamed on USATF.TV free beginning at 11:35 a.m. ET, with a webcast replay for on-demand-viewing available on USATF.TV+.

Leading the way in the professional men’s race will be three-time U.S. Olympian Matthew Centrowitz who won Rio 2016 Olympic gold in the 1,500 meters and the 5th Avenue Mile in 2012, and two-time U.S. Olympian Paul Chelimo, who won bronze in Tokyo and silver in Rio in the 5,000 meters.

“I’m excited to return to New York for my sixth race down 5th Avenue, a race I first won nine years ago,” Centrowitz said. “Heading back East and ending my season there is like a great end-of-summer tradition, and I’m looking to show the rest of the guys I’ve still got a step or two left in 2021.”

“I’ve already run a 5K and half marathon in New York, so now I just need to check the mile and the marathon off my list,” Chelimo said. “Running a straight line down 5th Avenue is very different than running laps on a track, and I’ve got more road racing experience than the other guys in this field. I’m confident in my finish, so if I can keep it close through halfway, I think I can beat the milers at their own game. Go hard or suffer for the rest of your life."

Challenging them will be two-time U.S. Olympian and 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in the 800 meters Clayton Murphy, Olympian and 2018 event champion Jake Wightman, and Olympian and European Indoor Championships gold medalist Adel Mechaal.

A trio of other Americans to watch will be Tokyo Olympians Joe Klecker, Mason Ferlic, and Hilary Bor, with Ferlic racing the event for the third time and Klecker and Bor making their debuts in the event after competing in Tokyo earlier this year.

The professional women’s race will see a first-time winner, with top contenders including USATF Road Mile Championships runner-up Shannon Osika, British indoor record-holder and Olympian Jemma Reekie, and European Indoor Championships gold medalist Amy-Eloise Markovc.

About New York Road Runners (NYRR)

NYRR’s mission is to help and inspire people through running. Since 1958, New York Road Runners has grown from a local running club to the world’s premier community running organization. NYRR’s commitment to New York City’s five boroughs features races, virtual races, community events, free youth running initiatives and school programs, the NYRR RUNCENTER featuring the New Balance Run Hub, and training resources that provide hundreds of thousands of people each year with the motivation, know-how, and opportunity to Run for Life. NYRR’s premier event, and the largest marathon in the world, is the TCS New York City Marathon. Held annually on the first Sunday in November, the race features a wide population of runners, from the world’s top professional athletes to a vast range of competitive, recreational, and charity runners. To learn more, visit www.nyrr.org.

Duplantis, Hassan and Cherry break meeting records in Brussels

Meeting records are hard to come by in the Wanda Diamond League, given it’s the premier one-day meeting circuit in the world, but three such marks fell at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on Friday (3), thanks to Mondo Duplantis, Sifan Hassan and Michael Cherry.

When the men’s pole vault got underway, some 40 minutes before the first track event, the King Baudouin Stadium was still filling up. By the time the contest reached its climax three hours later, with all other disciplines having long finished, Duplantis commanded the attention of every single person inside the venue.

Though the world record once again evaded Duplantis tonight, the 28,000 spectators – the largest gathering for an athletics meeting since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic – were treated to a vaulting masterclass from a legend of the sport.

The Olympic champion opened at 5.50m, skipped 5.65m and then got over 5.75m and 5.85m on his first tries. Four other men were left in the competition at this point, but only two of them got over 5.85m; Olympic silver medallist Christopher Nilsen did it on his first try, while US compatriot KC Lightfoot scraped over on his third attempt.

The US duo couldn’t quite manage 5.91m tonight, though, but Duplantis once again went clear at the first time of asking to confirm his victory. The 21-year-old Swede then raised the bar to 6.05m in a bid to add some height to his own 6.00m meeting record from last year. He brought the bar down with his first two tries, but got over it on his third attempt.

The bar was then raised to the would-be world record height of 6.19m. Following a short wait while the technical officials ensured all was set for a record attempt, Duplantis took to the runway but wasn’t particularly close to clearing the bar on his first attempt. His second try was significantly closer, and his third attempt was also decent, but a world record wasn’t to be tonight.

Nevertheless, Duplantis wasn’t disappointed with his winning height of 6.05m. Only he, Sergey Bubka and two-time world champion Sam Kendricks have ever vaulted higher outdoors.

"I was really close to the world record," said Duplantis. "Everything was perfect, it was just up to me. I haven't had such an amazing atmosphere during a competition in a really long time."

Almost a month has passed since Sifan Hassan’s final race at the Olympic Games, where she won two gold medals and one bronze. Having raced just once during that time, the Dutch distance star arrived in Brussels well rested and ready to take on the mile.

She was the only athlete capable of sticking with the pacemakers as they led through the first 400m in 1:02.03. By the time the second pacemaker reached the 800m point in 2:04.97, with Hassan still in close attendance, the rest of the field was about 30 metres adrift.

With a lap to go, it was clear from the wavelight technology that an improvement on Hassan’s 4:12.33 world record was not on the cards in Brussels, though it never really seemed as though that was her ambition for the race anyway. By this stage, her lead had grown to 50 metres and she kicked for the final lap, going on to win by more than six seconds.

Her winning time of 4:14.74, the fifth-fastest performance in history, smashed Faith Kipyegon’s meeting record by two seconds. Ethiopia’s Axumawit Embaye was second in 4:21.08, closely followed by Australia’s Linden Hall, who broke her own Oceanian record with 4:21.38.

“Since the start of the pandemic, we haven’t had such a big crowd and I’m so happy to see them,” said Hassan. “We haven’t experienced it for nearly two years; it makes you feel special. It’s amazing, I really love it.”

In Tokyo last month, Michael Cherry was beaten to the 400m bronze medal by just 0.02 as Kirani James pipped the US sprinter at the line. Today’s race in Brussels was the first clash between the pair since the Olympic final, and Cherry ran like a man with a point to prove.

He went out hard, as did James, and by half way the duo had started to open up a clear gap on the likes of Isaac Makwala and Liemarvin Bonevacia.

James almost drew level with Cherry on the final bend, but Cherry had another gear left and forged ahead down the home straight, crossing the line in a lifetime best of 44.03 to take 0.03 off Michael Johnson’s meeting record from 1998.

James finished second in 44.51 with Makwala taking third place in 44.83.

The meeting record may have remained intact in the women’s high jump, but it proved to be one of the most enthralling contests of the night.

Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene breezed through the first few heights and hadn’t recorded any failures up to and including 1.98m. World silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who needed three attempts to clear 1.95m, also got over 1.98m on her first try, while Olympic silver medallist Nicola McDermott needed two jumps to clear it.

But McDermott was then the first to go clear at 2.00m, getting over on her first try, then Lasitskene did likewise. Mahuchikh succeeded on her second attempt at 2.00m, but then nailed 2.02m on her first attempt, taking the lead at a critical point of the competition.

Lasitskene missed once and then passed to 2.04m, while McDermott had two misses at 2.02m before registering a third failure at 2.04m. Neither of the trio managed to get over 2.04m, leaving Mahuchikh as the winner. It was just the second time in Diamond League history that three women have cleared 2.00m in the same competition.

With Lasitskene having won in Lausanne and McDermott winning in Paris, Mahuchikh’s triumph in Brussels means all three Olympic medallists have achieved Diamond League wins since the Tokyo Games.

Kerley makes Diamond League history

Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley won the short sprint, becoming the first man to win over 100m, 200m and 400m in the Wanda Diamond League.

World leader Trayvon Bromell blasted into an early lead and held his form well, but Kerley rallied and held off the additional challenge from Michael Norman in lane seven, dipping well on the line to take the victory in 9.94.

Bromell held on to take second place in 9.97, just 0.01 ahead of Michael Norman (9.98), completing a US sweep of the top three places.

Christine Mboma, also an Olympic silver medallist, won the women’s 200m. The Namibian teenager came through strongly in the closing stages to edge in front of Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and world champion Dina Asher-Smith.

Mboma stopped the clock at 21.84 while Jackson took second place in 21.95. Asher-Smith recorded a season’s best of 22.04 in third, and US 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson was a few strides adrift in fourth place (22.45).

Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba produced a similarly well-timed finish to win the 5000m.

Once the last of the pacemakers dropped out at 2000m, Niyonsaba took up the running at the front of the pack with two-time world champion Hellen Obiri close behind. The Kenyan led for a brief stint too, passing through 3000m in a swift 8:42.57.

Niyonsaba, who finished fifth over 10,000m at the Tokyo Olympics, led again for most of the final kilometre, but Obiri kicked into the lead when the bell sounded for the final lap. She appeared to be on her way to victory, but Ethiopia’s Ejgayehu Taye came back strongly and briefly led with about 90 metres to go, then a rejuvenated Niyonsaba came back to take the lead in the closing stages, crossing the line in a national record of 14:25.34.

Taye took second place in 14:25.63 with Obiri claiming third in 14:26.23. World silver medallist Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi set a PB of 14:27.12 in fourth as the top seven women finished inside 14:32 – unprecedented depth for a 5000m race.

Goule, Rotich and McSweyn take middle distances

Exactly one month since her eighth-place finish at the Tokyo Olympics, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule rebounded with a satisfying win over 800m, beating several women who finished ahead of her at the Games.

With the pacemaker passing through the first lap in 56.99, the field was still relatively tightly bunched with 300 metres to go. Goule held the lead, but Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson moved on to the Jamaican’s shoulder on the final bend and looked poised to strike.

Goule had saved something for the finish, though, and she held off the challenge from the British teenager, winning in 1:58.09. Hodgkinson was second in 1:58.16 from compatriot Jemma Reekie (1:58.77).

Stewart McSweyn led an Australian 1-2 in the men’s 1500m. The Oceanian record-holder overtook a fading Mohamed Katir on the home straight to win in 3:33.20 with compatriot Oliver Hoare taking second place (3:33.79). Poland’s Michal Rozmys was third in 3:33.96.

Olympic silver medallist Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich was a comfortable winner of the non-scoring men’s 800m, crossing the line in 1:43.81 to win by more than a second from Belgium’s Eliott Crestan (1:45.24).

Hurdles victories for Dos Santos and Visser

Racing for the first time since taking Olympic bronze and moving to third on the world all-time list, Brazil’s Alison dos Santos won the men’s 400m hurdles with his trademark strong finish.

Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands led for most of the race, making up the stagger on Dos Santos, drawn one lane outside him, by the half-way point. Dos Santos stuck with McMaster around the final bend and drew level with Jamaica’s Jaheel Hyde. McMaster hit the penultimate hurdle, throwing off his rhythm slightly as he went into the final barrier. Dos Santos, meanwhile, came off the 10th hurdle much better and went on to win in 48.23.

McMaster finished second in 48.31 and Yasmani Copello took third place in 48.45.

The closest finish of the day came in the women’s 100m hurdles, in which Nadine Visser won by just eight thousandths of a second from Tobi Amusan, both timed at 12.69 (0.7m/s). Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper was third in 12.77.

Elsewhere, Steffin McCarter saved his best for last to win the men’s long jump. His sixth-round leap of 7.99m was not only the best in the ‘final three’ contest; it was also the top mark of the entire competition. Ruswahl Samaai was second thanks to his last-round leap of 7.89m, having jumped 7.95m earlier in the competition.

Eugene will play host rematches betwen olympic medalists at the Prefontaine Classic

Dozens of medal winners from the recent Tokyo Olympic Games will be back in action at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene when Hayward Field hosts the Prefontaine Classic on August 21.

Based on the announcements made so far by the meeting organizers, five events will feature a full set of Olympic medalists from Tokyo.

Double Olympic champion Sifan Hassan headlines the women’s 5000m field and she’ll take on two-time world champion Hellen Obiri and world indoor 1500m record-holder Gudaf Tsegay, the silver and bronze medalists in Tokyo over 5000m.

All three medalists from the men’s 5000m will also be in action as Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, Canada’s Moh Ahmed and USA’s Paul Chelimo clash over two miles.

Teenage stars Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson, the top two finishers in the 800m in Tokyo, will be back in action over two laps, along with world and Olympic bronze medallist Raevyn Rogers, world champion Halimah Nakaayi, Britain’s Jemma Reekie, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule and USA’s Ajee Wilson and Kate Grace.

World record-holder and two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser will look to maintain his winning streak in the shot put when he takes on world champion Joe Kovacs and 2017 world champion Tom Walsh. Brazil’s Darlan Romani and US duo Darrell Hill and Payton Otterdahl are also in the line-up.

Jamaican sprint stars Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson – who filled the 100m podium in Tokyo – will face USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson and Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast.

The men’s 100m, meanwhile, features Olympic silver and bronze medalists Andre De Grasse and Fred kerley, along with world indoor bronze medallist Ronnie Baker, 400m specialist Michael Norman and African record-holder Akani Simbine.

Two-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon will once again line up against Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir and Canadian record-holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, while world champion Timothy Cheruiyot will clash with Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s Bowerman mile.

In the women’s steeplechase, world champion Beatrice Chepkoech takes on world leader Norah Jeruto Tanui, Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs and 2017 world champion Emma Coburn.

Other global stars confirmed so far include world 400m hurdles champion Dalilah Muhammad, Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pablo Pichardo and world indoor triple jump record-holder Hugues Fabrice Zango.

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson will be targeting Paris 2024 gold

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson has set her sights on upgrading her 800m silver in 2021 to gold at the next Olympics in Paris in three years' time.

The 19-year-old broke Kelly Holmes' British record en route to claiming second place in the 800m in Tokyo.

"I want to turn this into a gold one day, that's the long-term goal in Paris," she told BBC Breakfast.

"I'm just going to carry on doing what I am doing because that is what has got me here."

Hodgkinson began 2021 aiming to add a European junior gold to the youth title she won in 2018, however a first sub-two minute time in January followed by European indoor gold and an impressive victory in Ostrava made her re-evaluate her plans.

In June, she surged past Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie to defend the national title she won against a weaker field 12 months earlier and book her place on the plane to Tokyo.

"I didn't really think about the enormity of it," said Hodgkinson of her Olympic final.

"I was most relaxed in the final because you have made it there, it is more the heats and the semi-finals where you get nervous.

"I just wanted to enjoy it because that is the biggest stage I have been on."

Hodgkinson was beaten to gold by another 19-year-old - Athing Mu of the USA - and their rivalry seems likely to be witnessed for years to come.

"Athing is a lovely girl and a great athlete," added Hodgkinson on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"To have two 19-year-olds on the podium was quite something I think, it bodes for a very bright future.

"We all get on really well, they are lovely girls and we have the utmost respect for each other. I think we are just going to push each other on throughout the years."

Kipyegon cruises to Kenyan 1500m record in Monaco

It’s all about keeping the faith.

Going into tonight’s 1500m at the EBS Herculis meeting in Monaco, world champion Sifan Hassan announced that she had asked for a pace of 61-second laps, which would add up to a second or so under the current world record of 3:50.07.

The Dutchwoman has set world records twice previously in Monaco, most recently over the mile two years ago, and she was feeling confident after rediscovering her love for the metric mile with a victory over Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Florence last month.

Hassan even floated the idea of adding the 1500m back into her Olympic schedule, having previously declared that she would attempt the 5000m-10,000m double.

She locked in behind the pacemaker from the beginning, her ambition obvious. Only Kipyegon and Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu dared to follow and the race was down to three when they reached the bell.

Hassan then turned the screws, but Kipyegon clung to her like a limpet down the back straight as the Dutchwoman stretched out her legs for the run home.

In the past three years races have inevitably gone Hassan’s way in this situation, her unmatched mix of speed and endurance proving irresistible. But not this time.

As they entered the final straight Kipyegon kicked hard, dashing past her rival and sprinting down the straight to win in 3:51.07, a Kenyan record and the fourth fastest time in history. In the last 90 metres she put two-and-a-half seconds into Hassan, who finished in 3:53.60, with Hailu third in a personal best of 3:56.28.

Despite her recent losses to Hassan, Kipyegon said she remained confident that her day would come.

“I knew Sifan was going for a fast race and my goal was to run a fast race here and I thank God that was,” she said. “I am really looking forward to Tokyo and I know it will be a very hard competition but I hope to go there and defend my title.”

Kipyegon gave birth to her first child in 2018, returning in 2019 to finish second to Hassan at the World Championships in Doha, but has now found an even richer vein of form than that which carried her to the Olympic title in 2016 and the world title in 2017. “I came back after giving birth and I feel like a role model for the young mothers out there and the young athletes,” she said. “I hope to show them that when you go for maternity leave, this does not mean the end of your career. You can come back strong and win races.”

Fellow Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot was also a man on a mission tonight.

With his Olympic dreams hanging in the balance, the world 1500m champion dashed to the fastest time in the world for six years.

An out-of-sorts Cheruiyot was a shock fourth at the Kenyan Olympic trials last month, putting him in grave danger of missing selection. The situation has been complicated by the fact that second-placed Kamar Etiang has not completed the requisite number of anti-doping tests to qualify for the Olympic Games so his eligibility is in question.

That has left Cheruiyot in limbo just weeks before the Tokyo Games, but he thrust aside all that uncertainty to race with clear intent in Monaco.

In the fastest race of the year, he led at the bell and fought off all challenges, setting a personal best of 3:28.28 as four men dipped under 3:30.

Spanish surprise packet Mohamed Katir took almost five seconds from his personal best to finish second (3:28.76 national record) ahead of European champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:29.25) and Australia’s Stewart McSweyn, who set an Oceanian record of 3:29.51 in fourth.

Cheruiyot revealed afterwards that a hamstring injury and the death of a relative on the day of the Kenyan trial had affected his performance there but he still hoped to be selected for the Olympics.

“Hopefully that will be the deciding performance to make the team for Tokyo,” he said.

Amos and Muir impress over two laps

On a night of high-quality middle distance running, Botswana’s Olympic medallist Nijel Amos roared back to top form, recording the fastest time of the year to down a field full of Olympic contenders.

With his arms flailing, Amos used his awkward but effective running style to propel himself past Kenya’s Emmanuel Kori (1:43.04) and Canada’s Marco Arop (1:43.26).

Britain’s Laura Muir also had the last laugh in a world-class 800m field, looming late to take the win in a big personal best of 1:56.73. Muir had never cracked 1:58 previously for the distance, but had the strength to haul in her training partner Jemma Reekie (1:56.96) and USA’s Kate Grace (1:57.20) in the final metres as all three women set personal best times.

Muir has decided to focus her energy on the 1500m in Tokyo but that will be no easy task as Kipyegon demonstrated.

Both 3000m steeplechase races were suffused with drama and unpredictability at the Stade Louis II.

The men’s race descended into confusion when an official rang the bell a lap too early, but world silver medallist Lamecha Girma still managed to run a world-leading time of 8:07.75 to take the win from Abraham Kibiwot, just 0.06 behind.

In the women’s race, 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng made a break from the pack after two kilometres but misjudged the remaining laps and kicked too early. After crossing the line and hearing the bell for the actual final lap, the Kenyan tried to muster some energy to run another circuit. USA’s 2017 world champion Emma Coburn positioned herself to challenge Kiyeng as they approached the water jump, but Coburn stumbled at the hurdle and fell into the water losing all momentum, leaving Kiyeng to take the victory in 9:03.82, with world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech second in 9:04.94 and Winfred Yavi third (9:05.45). Coburn regathered herself to cross the line in fourth place in 9:09.02.

Baker blasts to 100m victory

There was unpredictability too in the men’s 100m where the form book was upended as the ever-reliable Ronnie Baker claimed victory in 9.91, from African record-holder Akani Simbini (9.98) and Italian Marcell Jacobs (9.99).

World leader Trayvon Bromell, regarded by many as the man most likely to win the Olympic 100m crown in Tokyo next month, lacked his usual zip and could only finish fifth in 10.01.

World 100m champion Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce used her early speed to take the lead on the bend in the women’s 200m, but could not hold off the Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the straight.

Miller-Uibo, who has chosen to focus on the 200m for Tokyo, won in 22.23 from Marie-Josee Ta Lou (22.25) with Fraser-Pryce third (22.48).

New world 400m hurdles record-holder Karsten Warholm returned to the competition track for the first time since his heroics in his hometown Oslo last week, eager to challenge his new “personal best” of 46.70.

He made a typically aggressive start, making up the stagger by the second hurdle, but ultimately he could not match the pace he set last week, crossing the finish line in a meeting record of 47.08, still the fourth fastest time of his career and faster than all but five other men in history.

He was pleased to maintain such a consistently high level of performance. “This was a good race so I’m satisfied,” he said.

Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos continued to build his Olympic medal credentials with a strong second place in 47.51, just outside his personal best of 47.34, also set in Oslo.

In the field, US pole vaulter Katie Nageotte carried her fine form to Europe to clear 4.90m and claim an impressive victory over world champion Anzhelika Sidorova and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, who both cleared 4.80m.

A tight high jump competition was decided by a jump-off after both neutral athlete Mikhail Akimenko and Canadian Django Lovett were tied with best clearances of 2.29m. Akimenko then claimed the victory by leaping 2.32m in the decider.

World triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas had a tough night at the office, fouling four of her six jumps, including two that looked like they would have challenged the world record (15.50m). She led after five rounds with a best leap of 15.12m but could not find the board in the all-important sixth round under the Final 3 format being trialled in the Diamond League this year.

Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts took the win with 14.29m after she was the only one of the top three to register a legal jump in the final.

The men’s long jump also finished with an anti-climax after Miltiadis Tentoglou was the only one to hit the board in the final round (8.24m).

The women’s javelin was the only throwing event on the programme and saw a return to the winner’s circle for the veteran world record-holder Barbora Spotakova, who threw a season’s best of 63.08m in the sudden-death final round, the farthest mark ever achieved by a 40-year-old thrower.

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon runs spectacular 1500 at Herculis meeting

Off of an early fast pace, Kenya's Faith Kipyegon kicked to glory today in the 1500m at the Herculis meeting at the Stade Louis II, clocking the fourth-fastest time in history, 3:51.07. The 2016 Olympic 1500m champion swept past the tiring Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan in the homestretch, to beat the reigning world 1500m and 10,000m champion by two and one half seconds and break her own Kenyan record.

"I thought I could run faster than that," Kipyegon said improbably after the race.

American 800-meter runner Chanelle Price got the race off to a good start, leading Kipyegon, Hassan and Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu through 400m in 61.5 and 800m in 2:03.6. Price quickly stepped aside, and Hassan took the lead and was clearly focused on running a fast time. Kipyegon stayed close, but did not attempt to pass. She knew this was a great opportunity to run a fast time.

"I knew Sifan was going for a fast race and my goal was to run a fast race here and I thank God that was," Kipyegon said.

The petite Kenyan, who took a full year off in 2018 to have her daughter Alyn, waited until she came out of the final bend to launch her lethal sprint, and she clearly showed the kind of fitness which will be required to defend her Olympic title in Tokyo.

"I am really looking forward to Tokyo and I know it will be a very hard competition but I hope to go there and defend my title," she said. "I have a lot of pressure because the 1500m is a tactical race. Now I will train hard and hope to do my best at the Games."

Hailu, who is only 20 years-old, held on to get third place in a personal best 3:56.28.

There was also fast men's 1500m tonight. Off of the perfect pacing job by American 800m runner Chris Sowinski who hit 400m in 54.2 and 800m in 1:50.8, reigning world champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya had a narrow lead over Australia's Stewy McSweyn and Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Spain's Mohamed Katir was close behind the leading trio.

With about 200 meters to go, Katir tried to pass Cheruiyot on the outside, but the tall Kenyan quickly responded. In the homestretch, Katir continued to dig, but Cheruiyot would not relent and beat the Spaniard 3:28.28 to 3:28.76. Cheruiyot's time was a 2021 world leader and a personal best, while Katir bested Fermin Cacho's 24 year-old Spanish record of 3:28.95.

"Today's race was good and I won it for the third time," said Cheruiyot who also won here in 2019 and 2020. "I missed competition a lot after spending a lot of time in Kenya where I had a few issues like my hamstring injury and after also losing a relative in my family on the day of the Kenyan trials explaining why I missed out on making the team," Cheruiyot added. "I am therefore happy I am back again after all this."

There were more fast times down the finish order; 11 men broke 3:33. Ingebrigtsen finished third in a season's best 3:29.25, and McSweyn ran an Australian record 3:29.51. McSweyn has also run an Australian record for the mile in Oslo eight days ago.

There were strong 800m races here for both women and men. In the women's contest, Scotswoman Laura Muir got a dramatic victory moving from fourth place to first by sweeping wide in the final 50 meters. She ran a personal best 1:56.73 ahead of her training partner Jemma Reekie (1:56.96 PB), American Kate Grace (1:57.20) and Jamaican Natoya Goule (1:57.35). Goule had led the race into the final 200 meters but tied up in the homestretch.

The men's two-lap race played out similarly when 2012 Olympic silver medalist Nijel Amos muscled past the tiring Marco Arop of Canada --who had led after the pacemaker dropped out-- and Emmanuel Korir of Kenya in the homestretch. Amos finished in a world-leading 1:42.91, while Korir got a season's best 1:43.04 and Arop a personal best 1:43.26. Clayton Murphy, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist finished seventh in 1:44.41.

"It is always a good feeling coming out here to Monaco, that I am always winning out here, always having a good time," said Amos. "So I try to channel that positivity and bring it to the race. No matter what shape I am in, it always seems to come together."

Laura Muir runs second fastest 800m by British woman and sets new Scottish record

Laura Muir broke the Scottish record in the 800m at the Diamond League meet in Monaco on Friday night, just a day after announcing her plan to solely focus on the 1500m at the Tokyo Olympics.

Muir gave up her spot in the 800m British Olympic group on Thursday in order to concentrate on success in the 1500m, a distance over which she is the current British record holder and sealed European glory back in 2018.

The 28-year-old finished seventh in the 1500m at the last Olympics in Rio five years ago and has reached each of the last three World Championship finals, finishing fourth in London in 2017.

Muir finished third behind Keely Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie in the 800m at the British Championships last month and subsequently abandoned plans to double up in Tokyo, avoiding a potential schedule of six races in the span of just eight days.

However, Muir then set a new Scottish record in the 800m in Monaco on Friday night, with her time of one minute and 56.73 seconds surpassing Lynsey Sharp’s mark from Rio 2016.

Indeed, Dame Kelly Holmes is now the only British woman to have run the 800m quicker, with her 1995 time of 1:56.21 still the fastest.

While Muir is now second on that list, training partner Reekie is third after running a 1:56.96 on a memorable night in Monaco.

Muir was quoted on scottishathletics.org.uk as saying: “This was my last race before Tokyo, so I just wanted to give it my best and put on paper the sort of shape that I know I am in and I am just so happy with that.

“Having a training partner like Jemma is huge, Jemma has made me a much faster 800m runner. We push each other so much and we’ve both run 1:56, so I have definitely become faster because of her.

“I am going to go home tomorrow, have a week at home before flying out to Tokyo and just train as hard as I can, so I am in even better shape in Tokyo. I want to win a medal, that is all I am focusing on.”

Laura Muir ditches Tokyo Olympics double plan to focus on 1500m

British athletics star Laura Muir has opted against attempting a middle distance double at the Tokyo Olympics, deciding to focus instead on the 1500m.

Muir had been named in the British team for the 800m as well, but has surrendered that spot, meaning Alex Bell gets a late call-up to the team.

Muir is the British record holder over 1500m and that event has historically been her strongest. The Scot finished seventh at the last Olympic Games in Rio and has reached each of the last three World Championship finals in the discipline, including when finishing fourth in London in 2017.

Her performances over the longer distance had made her all-but certain to be selected and so the 28-year-old opted to run the 800m at the British Championships last month with a view to doubling up in Tokyo, but she could only finish third behind teenager Keely Hodgkinson and training partner Jemma Reekie.

Competing in both events would potentially have meant a gruelling schedule of six races in eight days and Muir will now focus solely on the 1500m, the first round of which takes place the day before the 800m final as the competitions overlap.

Bell finished fifth at the British Championships but is ranked fourth in the UK this year - behind Hodgkinson, Muir and Reekie - after running a PB of 1:58.52 in Belfast in May and gets her first Olympic call-up.

World record-holders ready to clash in Hengelo

Five world champions, four Olympic gold medallists and two world record-holders are set to compete at the FBK Games – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Hengelo on Sunday (6).

Pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis will be raring to go after his 23-meet winning streak came to an end at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead at the end of last month. Battling tough conditions, the 21-year-old from Sweden gave the bar a slight nudge on his final attempt at 5.80m – what would have been a winning height – and it came down, meaning victory went to two-time world champion Sam Kendricks.

Kendricks won’t be in Hengelo, but Duplantis will have one eye on the US vaulter’s meeting record and Dutch all-comers’ record of 5.91m.

Olympic champion Thiago Braz and Dutch vaulter Menno Vloon, who set a national indoor record of 5.96m earlier this year, are also in the line-up.

Double world champion Sifan Hassan will return to the track on which she set a European 10,000m record of 29:36.67 last year and will again contest the 25-lap discpline. The Dutch distance runner has tested her form over a range of distances this year, clocking 8:33.62 for 3000m indoors, followed by 14:35.34 for 5000m and 2:01.54 for 800m outdoors.

Kenya’s Daisy Cherotich, New Zealand’s world finalist Camille Buscomb and Canada’s Andrea Seccafien will all be hoping to emerge from the race with lifetime bests.

World 800m champion Halimah Nakaayi will open her 2021 campaign over her specialist distance. The Ugandan middle-distance runner takes on a quartet of Britons – Laura Muir, Kelly Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie and Adelle Tracey – as well as Norway’s Hedda Hynne and France’s Renelle Lamote.

In the men’s event, indoor sensation Elliot Giles lines up for his first outdoor 800m of the year, taking on fellow Brits Max Burgin – who set a European U20 record of 1:44.14 in Ostrava last month – and Daniel Rowden. Tony van Diepen, one of the Netherlands’ top performers at the World Athletics Relays Silesia 21, is also in the field.

Recent Montreuil winner Abel Kipsang goes in the men’s 1500m where he’ll take on Uganda’s Ronald Musagala and Britain’s sub-3:30 performer Jake Wightman.

Asher-Smith, Kerley and McLeod set to produce sprint highlights

Although she has raced there only once before, world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith has fond memories of racing in Hengelo.

It is where, as a teenager back in 2015, she set her first senior national record over 100m, clocking 11.02. Six years on from that performance, and having bagged many more records and medals, the world 200m champion will be hoping for a sub-11-second clocking to improve on the 11.35 season’s best she recorded when winning in Gateshead, running in heavy rain and into a -3.1m/s headwind.

Nigeria’s world and Olympic medallist Blessing Okagbare, who has a season’s best of 10.90, and two-time world 200m champion Dafne Schippers are also in the line-up.

World 4x400m champion Fred Kerley has so far this year produced his most impressive performances at 100m, clocking 9.91 and 9.96 in recent weeks. In Hengelo, however, he’ll step back up to his specialist 400m discipline and will aim to improve on the 44.60 season’s best he recorded in Doha last week.

US 800m star, Ajeé Wilson is on the comeback trail

The US 800m star is on the comeback trail, writes Elliott Denman, and about to hit the track for her first competition in 12 months

“It’s been crazy,” Ajee’ Wilson tells you, by way of telephone interview.

Which isn’t exactly late-breaking news.

Then again, when you are the No.1-ranked athlete in the world in a prime event on the programme of the “flagship sport of the Olympic Games,” a very good guess is that the last year has been a whole lot crazier for you than it’s been for so many of your contemporaries.

At 26 – she’ll be 27 on May 8 – the stellar speedster from Neptune, New Jersey, a Temple University graduate who now lives and trains in Philadelphia, is already the owner of 11 USA Track and Field national championship gold medals, holds both versions of the American record for 800m (1:55.61 outdoors, 1:58.29 indoors) and is a young veteran of both the 2016 Olympics and multiple editions of the world championships, And, too, she ran off with the top spot in the most recent complete edition of the Diamond League circuit in 2019.

That’s already a career dossier that puts her right up there with the best of the best in American track annals.

Nevertheless, she hasn’t competed in nearly a year and can’t really tell you “where I am” heading into the New Balance Grand Prix at Staten Island’s Ocean Breeze complex, on Saturday February 13. Her 2021 debut will thus be more than interesting as the track and field world catch up on her exploits and she catches up with her own sport.

Her most recent competitive outing was at the USATF Indoor Nationals in February last year in Albuquerque. Of course, she won it, in 2:01.98 and at altitude. It came a week after she’d won at New York’s Millrose Games, in an American record of 1:58.29, which held up as No.2 world time of the indoor season behind Jemma Reekie’s 1:57.9.

She’d opened her 2020 season with a 2:02.37 win in January at the New York Armory’s Dr Sander Invitational. But before that, her last prior major outing was third place at the World Championships in Doha in September 2019.

So that adds up to just three major competitions in a year and just four in nearly 16 months. What can the track and field world expect?

Wilson can’t really tell you – other than saying: “I’m pretty healthy, I’ve been training well, not bad at all (with her training group partners and coach Derek Thompson, almost always outdoors in Philadelphia, no matter the weather).

“I don’t have any issues, no nicks, no nacks.”

Yes, there were “some nicks, some nacks” for a brief stretch last summer but they’re long gone now and she’s more than anxious to get back into real racing.

She’s grateful, too, that, even through this brutal stretch of overlapping universal economic slowdown, and the devastations of the pandemic, her sponsor adidas has stayed with her and lent the ongoing support appropriate to a world-class athlete.

After the Staten Island start, she hopes to run The Texas Qualifer, a brand new outdoor meet in the Austin area on February 26-27 designed to help Tokyo Olympic hopefuls post qualifying marks. Focusing on events from the 800m up to 10,000m for men and women, the meet will be USATF-sanctioned, spectator-free and fully observant of Covid protocols.

“Hopefully” – a word almost all the global elite uses regularly these challenging days – the meet will evolve into a major stepping stone on the way to Japan in July.

Like every global Games candidate, she has no firm idea if the Tokyo Olympics will actually transpire as scheduled. And if so, in what form? As a strictly-for-TV extravaganza? As a spectator-free production? In a who-knows-what format?

“I’m just hopeful,” said Wilson. “Whatever they decide, that’s fine with me.”

She adds: “It’s obviously a bigger call than any of us can make.”

British middle-distance runner Laura Muir refocuses on Olympic goals

Training and development are built around peaking at the end of a four-year cycle, so when the 2020 Tokyo Games were pushed back to 2021 there was much anguish.

For Laura Muir, a genuine medal prospect, it was a case of years of planning and preparation being tossed out the window.

Muir, a trained vet, had put the rest of her life on the backburner as she chased the Olympic dream.

“It was hard because I had set everything on hold really to focus on Olympics this year,” she explained. “My whole life was revolving around that goal, to be honest. I had no other plans.

“When that went there was that sinking feeling of ‘Oh, what now?’

“Then we had the Europeans still on just for a while and then they were cancelled, not even postponed. It was gutting because the Olympics only come around once every four years and it was something I was really looking to perform well at.

“At the same time, around March time, I could see the way Covid-19 was developing around the world and I wasn’t going to be surprised by a postponement.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t cancelled but was put back to next year. Hopefully, it can go ahead in 2021 as is now planned.”

Despite the disruption, Muir still managed to produce some outstanding performances in the truncated athletics season.

She delivered three sub-four minute runs over 1500 metres, including the world lead time of 3min 57:40sec which secured victory in a top-class field in Berlin last month. That race was her fifth win in a row. In the midst of it, she also set a new British 1000m record.

But Muir didn’t have it all her own way. A few days after Berlin, Jemma Reekie beat her in the 800m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome.

With Tokyo looming, Muir is uncertain about her winter programme and will take time to work out a plan with long-serving mentor Andy Young, who was named Performance Coach of the Year at the Scottish Athletics awards and also has Reekie in his stable.

“Putting any plans in place for the winter or the months ahead is so difficult right now,” said Muir.

“I’ve resumed training and hope to get in a strong block now. Whether that is here, or abroad, I don’t know – when and where are a bit up in the air in terms of a foreign camp. We will have to see how things go.

Impressive victories by Jacob Kiplimo, Christian Taylor and Faith Kipyegon at the Golden Spike, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava

Kiplimo’s track break-out:

In the men’s 5000m, the 19-year-old Kiplimo fought off Selemon Barega in a fierce homestraight brawl to take the win in 12:48.63, one of seven meeting records to fall on a clear night in this eastern Czech city where 3000 spectators were allowed entry to Mestsky Stadium to help celebrate the meeting’s 59th edition.

Just 3:30 into the race it was Barega, running behind pacer Lamecha Girma, who looked to be in control. With four laps to go he was already all alone and well ahead of the sprawled out pack.

“I wanted the fast time so I kept on pushing,” said Kiplimo, the silver medallist in the senior race at last year’s World Cross Country Championships. “It was a fight in the home straight. And it was wonderulf.”

It was also the first big-meet victory for the teenager. More are likely on their way.

Strong, solo Kipyegon:

Faith Kipyegon produced a powerful performance to take the 1500m in convincing fashion.

Controlling the tempo from the 800m point, the Olympic champion pulled away for good with some 250 metres remaining, with Laura Weightman briefly giving chase. Kipyegon clocked 3:59.05, a season's best and another meeting record.

Weightman, who was briefly passed by Jemma Reekie as they approached the final bend, overtook the Scot in the homestretch to finish second in 4:01.96 with Reekie further back in 4:03.25.

Taylor triples 17.42m world lead:

In typical fashion, Christian Taylor produced the goods in the final round to win the triple jump, reaching a world-leading 17.46 in the final round to steal the win from Hugues Fabrice Zango, who controlled the competition since the second round when he jumped 17.42m. 

Taylor needed time to find his rhythm, shaking off a pair of back-to-back modest efforts with a 17.12m jump in round three. He didn’t produce another measured jump until his last. 

Warholm dominates:

Two-time world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm extended his unbeaten streak to ten with a convincing 47.62 victory, another meeting record.

It wasn’t quite the follow-up he was expecting after his stunning 46.87 European record in Stockholm where a clip of the final hurdle dashed his world record ambitions there. This time, he chopped his stride badly as he approached the ninth barrier, but if he was disappointed, he hid it well.

“It’s always nice to get a win, but I was a little surprised by the time to be honest,” said Warholm, who was flown to Ostrava on Sunday on a private jet.

“I had a little stutter step, I had to switch (lead legs). There was nothing dramatic about it, I just had to do a switch. But that probably affected my time. Everything that breaks your rhythm is going to impact your finish time.”

Ludvy Vaillant of France was second in 49.14, a season’s best.

Hassan out-sprints Chelangat:

Sifan Hassan, Sheila Chelangat and Yasemin Can waged a strong battle in the women’s 5000m, but through it all, Hassan, the world 1500m and 10,000m champion, was just biding her time. That came, she decided, with about 300 metres to go, when she pulled past Chelangat and ran off down the backstretch and eventually to a convincing 14:37.85 victory. 

Chelangat, who took care of much of the pacesetting chores, was second, passing Can in the waning stages to clock in 14:40.51, a career best for the 22-year-old Kenyan. Can, running in her first race on the track this year, was next in 14:40.70.

800m wins for Muir and Wightman:

Laura Muir was again the class of the field in her event, this time the 800m, turning in a solid 1:58.84 victory. Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui, who was second to the Scot in the Silesia 1500m on Sunday, was second again in 2:00.82.

Jake Wightman took down a solid field in the men’s race in 1:44.18, a career best for the 26-year-old who's better known for his 1500m exploits. The performance lopped a hefty sum from his previous best of 1:44.61 set two years ago.

Sifan Hassan will headline the 5000m field at the Golden Spike, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Ostrava, Czech Republic on September 8

Hassan is the top name announced by organizers today to mark one month to go to the meeting's 59th edition.

Primary among the 27-year-old Dutchwoman's ambitions will the meeting record of 14:30.18 set by Meseret Defar in 2007.

“Going back to Ostrava to compete at the Golden Spike is very special to me," she said.

"Back in 2013 it was the Golden Spike that gave me the chance to run for the first time at a big international competition. It was a surprise to me that I won this race. After that I was able to compete at the highest level. So Ostrava means a lot to me and I really look forward to compete there again."

Hassan clocked 4:04.02 to win on that occasion, a PB in that early stage of her international career. She's gone on to clock 3:51.95 and 14:22.12 for the 5000m, both among her wide-ranging collection of European records.

This year's 1500m race will feature 22-year-old Jemma Reekie of Great Britain, a double winner at last year's European U23 Championships whose breakthrough 2020 indoor season included personal bests with 1:57.91 and 4:00.52 in the 800m and 1500m, respectively. Organisers are hoping she can mount an assault on Gudaf Tsegay's meeting record of 4:00.96 from 2017.

Poland's 2018 European Championships medallist Sofia Ennaoui (4:01.00 PB) and Simona Vrzalova, who was fifth at the last edition of the European championships and who is from Ostrava, are also in the field.

Reekie's well-known training partner, the continental European indoor and outdoor 1500m champion Laura Muir, will headline the 800m. She has a 1:58.42 career best and is certainly targeting another sub-two minute performance. She'll take on top Czech runner Diana Mezulianikova and Slovak Gabriela Gajanova. 

Jemma Reekie wins 1500m in Glasgow to continue fine start to 2020

Jemma Reekie continued her sensational start to 2020 by winning the 1500 metres at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow.

The 21-year-old had already broken three British indoor records this month and produced a blistering final lap to overtake Ethiopian Dawit Seyaum on the home straight and finish in four minutes and 4.07 seconds.

The time did not threaten the British record she set last weekend – it was about three-and-a-half seconds out – but the Scot showed impressive determination and composure to make her move down the inside.

Reekie admitted she feared she might be boxed in at one stage but she forced her way through.

"A few points I had to get my elbows out," she said. "That's middle-distance running for you. I am just learning so getting the confidence that I can do that was good.

"I was hoping I was going to beat my own British record but it's OK, I will take the win."

Six Scots have been confirmed in the field for the Muller Indoor Grand Prix at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on Saturday

Laura Muir spearheads the Scottish contingent as she lines up in the 1000m, where she will attempt to break the world record.

She will be joined in Glasgow by her training partner, Jemma Reekie, who has been in extremely impressive form in recent weeks, breaking three British indoor records as well as beating Muir last weekend.

Reekie will race the 1500m, the event in which she broke the British indoor record last weekend when she clocked 4 minutes 0.75 seconds in New York last weekend.

Also in excellent form is Nikki Manson who will compete in the high jump on the back of breaking the Scottish record last weekend with a leap of 1.93m.

In the 800m, Josh Kerr and Guy Learmonth will go head-to-head but they will face stiff competition as also in the field is reigning World Indoor champion, Adam Kszczot, of Poland

Completing the Scottish entries is Heather Paton in the sprint hurdles, who is another athlete who has been on record-breaking form in recent weeks having broken her own indoor record over 60m this season. Jake Wightman, who broke the British 1000m record a fortnight ago was due to appear but has withdrawn after illness disrupted training.

The Scots will be in good company at the Emirates, with a star-studded field having been lured to compete.

GB heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who is the current world champion, will compete in the long jump while Shelly-Anne Fraser-Pryce will line up in the 60m. The Jamaican is a two-time Olympic gold medallist and returned to the sport last summer having given birth to her son.

Also in action is man of the moment, Mondo Duplantis, who broke the pole vault world record last weekend.

Jemma Reekie beats Laura Muir to set new British indoor 800m record

Scotland's Jemma Reekie has taken half a second off the British indoor record in an invitation women's 800m race at Glasgow's Emirates Arena.

Reekie, 21, posted a time of one minute 57.91 seconds to beat Jenny Meadows' mark of 1:58.43 from 2010.

British indoor champion Reekie beat training partner Laura Muir into second, with the four-time European Indoor champion finishing in 1:58.44. 

Reekie won double European Under-23 gold in Sweden last year.