Norway's Jacob Ingebrigtsen broke the long-standing 3,000m world record by more than three seconds at the Silesian Diamond League meet in Chorzow, Poland.
Ingebrigtsen finished in 7 minutes 17.55 seconds, beating the previous record of 7 minutes 20.67 seconds set by Kenyan Daniel Komen in Rieti, Italy in 1996.
Ingebrigtsen's previous best time over this distance, set last September, was nearly three seconds slower than Komen's time.
The 23-year-old Ingebrigtsen was in shock when he crossed the line and saw his time. He received a check for $50,000 and posed with it in front of the clock.
“It's a special and amazing feeling. I wanted to attempt the world record here but with all the training I've done, it's impossible to predict exactly what time I can do,” he said, “but I didn't expect I could run 7 minutes 17 seconds. At first the pace felt really fast but then I started to get a feel for the flow of the race and found a good rhythm.”
“The 3,000 is a tough distance,” Ingebrigtsen continued, “After four or five laps you start to feel the lactic acid, but you have to keep going. Today it was tough with the heat, but that's the same for everyone. Now I want to challenge for world records at all distances, but one step at a time.”
He finished ahead of three Ethiopians, with Belikh Aregawi, the Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000 metres, coming in second in a personal best and third-fastest time of all time (7:21.28). Yomif Kejelcha was third.
Three days ago, two weeks after American Cole Hocker shocked athletes by winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics, the Norwegian got a little revenge on Hocker by winning the 1,500 meters in Lausanne in 3 minutes 27.83 seconds.
