Athletics news - Laura Muir breaks British mile record by over five seconds in Birmingham
ByReuters
Published 16/02/2019 at 17:19 GMT
Scotland's Laura Muir became the third-fastest indoor miler of all-time at the same meeting when she broke the British record in Birmingham.
Laura Muir of Great Britain celebrates winning the Women's One Mile in a new British record time of 4 minutes 18:74 seconds during the Muller Indoor Grand Prix IAAF World Indoor Tour event at Arena Birmingham
Image credit: Getty Images
The European champion clocked 4:18.75, breaking Kirsty Wade's 31-year-old British record of 4:23.86.
The world record is 4:13.31 by Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba in 2016.
"I knew I was in great shape," Muir told the BBC. "It was about winning the race, but also about running fast.
I'm so chuffed to get the record on home soil. I knew the spilt halfway and knew I was there and thereabouts. The crowd were fantastic.
Meanwhile, Ethiopian teenager Samuel Tefera outduelled compatriot Yomif Kejelcha to break the world indoor 1,500m record.
Tefera, 19, clocked three minutes, 31.04 seconds at the IAAF World Indoor Tour meeting to take down Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj's 1997 record of 3:31.18.
It came on the same Birmingham track where Tefera had won the world title last year.
Tefera kicked past Kejelcha after the bell for the final lap and charged to the finish line.
Kejelcha finished second in a personal best of 3:31.58.
Kejelcha, the 21-year-old two-time world indoor 3,000m champion, had come within 0.01 of the world indoor mile record last week in New York. He had announced before Saturday's race he would be going for the 1,500m record.
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