For the second time in swift succession Ciara Mageean has broken her own Irish 1,500 metres record, taking it into 3:55 second territory for the first time with the promise of still more to come.
Back at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels where she first improved that mark this time last year, scoring a rare victory for an Irish athlete at any Diamond League, Mageean did have to settle for second place this time, her old rival Laura Muir taking the win in 3:55.34.
Then came the Portaferry athlete in 3:55.87. knocking the best part of a second off the 3:56.61 she ran to finish fourth at the World Championships in Budapest late last month.
With the iconic King Baudouin Stadium in the heart of the city recently renovated with a brand new track surface, fast times were being billed across the evening. After the pacemakers went though 400m in 61 seconds, then 800m in 2:05, things slowed sightly before Muir made a long kick from home 500m out.
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Mageean promptly moved on to her heals, looking to get past down the backstretch, only this time Muir wasn’t letting up. Nelly Chepchirchir from Kenya took third in 3:56.93, the top nine all going sub-four.
Muir was also run out of the medals in Budapest, but the British athlete looked back to her best when winning the 800m in Zurich last Friday, Mageean also having an outing over 800m on Padua on Sunday, finishing second in 2:00.08.
Last year in Brussels, Muir had to settle for second, Mageean’s time on that night of 3:56.63 breaking the four-minute barrier for the first time, taking over two seconds off the then previous Irish 1,500m record belonging to Sonia O’Sullivan, the 3:58.85 she ran in Monte Carlo way back in 1995.
The King Baudouin Stadium also got to witness its first world record since the revamp, Jakob Ingebrigtsen clearly back to his best after lowering the 2,000m mark to astonishing 4:43.13.
The previous mark here had stood to Hicham El Guerrouj for the last 24 years, the Moroccan multiple world-record holder running 4:44.79 in Berlin back in 1999.
Ingebrigtsen made sure that stayed well within his reach, passing halfway in 2:22, before hitting the bell alone in 3:48. It’s a first outdoor world record for the 22-year-old Norwegian, who was beaten into second at the World Championships over 1,500m, before winning another gold in the 5,000m.
Other world champions keeping form were Femke Bol, winning the 400m hurdles in a meeting record of 52.11, before Shericka Jackson from Jamaica again ran close to the 200m world record of 21.34, belonging to Florence Griffith Joyner since 1988, running a Diamond League record of 21.48, the fourth fastest of all time.
Meanwhile, still fresh from her Irish under-23 record over 3,000m in Italy on Wednesday, Sophie O’Sullivan moved down to 800m at a meeting in Germany, this time running a six-second improvement, her 2:01.43 good enough for second on the night, the 21 year-old improving her previous best of 2:06.05.
