Hicham El Guerrouj’s records are hardly soft. His 1500m mark of 3:26.00 has stood since 1998, his one mile time of 3:43.13 since 1999 and his 2000m best of 4:44.79 was also set in ’99.
The Moroccan’s marks have stood the test of time, but Jakob Ingebrigtsen smashed the 2000m record on Friday (Sept 8) in Brussels by 1.66sec with a magnificent 4:43.13.
No doubt keen to stamp his authority on the middle-distance world again after his defeat to Britain’s Josh Kerr in Budapest, Ingebrigtsen finished five seconds clear of his rivals and raised his finger triumphantly after he crossed the line as if to say “I’m No.1!”
Ingebrigtsen, who already held the European record with 4:50.01 from Oslo in 2020, had three pacemakers plus Wavelight technology to help keep him on course to break El Guerrouj’s mark. Mounir Akbache led through the first lap in 56.67 and the second in 56.77 (about 1:53.4 at 800m) as Ingebrigtsen was a couple of metres behind in fourth behind the other hares Boaz Kiprugut and Cornelius Tuwei of Kenya.
Kiprugut passed the kilometre mark in 2:22.28 before stepping aside with the third lap in 57.35. Tuwei then hit the front and the fourth lap was 57.33 although he pulled out with 650m to go, at which point Ingebrigtsen was on his own.
After seemingly struggling to stay with the pace a little mid-race, Ingbrigtsen now looked strong and began to edge ahead of the Wavelight that was illustrating El Guerrouj’s pace from 24 years earlier. His rivals were also dropped and there was only going to be one winner.
Passing the bell in an incredible 3:48.1 compared to El Guerrouj’s 3:49.6, Ingebrigtsen began to pour it on and finished with a flourish to smash the Moroccan’s record.
After setting a two miles world best of 7:54.10 earlier this year in Paris, it means it is his second world record or best of 2023.
“It’s always fun to break a record,” said Ingebrigtsen. “This one qualifies as a world record and not as a world’s best. I know I was able to break this one, but I had some kind of virus 10 days ago and I didn’t really know how I would be feeling today. However I felt really good and ran a good race.
“To be honest this record wasn’t a difficult one for me. Sure, when you have to do it alone, it’s really tough, but I got great help from the pacemakers and they were able to help me more than I expected.”
Behind, Reynold Cheruiyot ran a Kenyan record of 4:48.14. In third, Stewart McSweyn of Australia clocked an Oceania record of 4:48.77. Teenage prodigy Niels Laros ran a Dutch record of 4:49.68 in fourth. Mario Garcia clocked a Spanish record of 4:49.85, just ahead of world 1500m bronze medallist Narve Nordås, the Norwegian running 4:50.64.
The 2000m is of course a relatively rarely run event but there were more records, too, with Charles Philibert-Thiboutot of Canada clocking a North American record of 4:51.54, while Ruben Verheyden ran a Belgium record of 4:52.37.
Source: AW