Scandinavia in mid-June and if you can’t run fast at a sold-out Bislett Games you can’t run fast anywhere. Jakob Ingebrigtsen certainly knows that well by now.
So, no world records on the night – and the Norwegian capital has seen plenty of those over the years, 25 falling here since 1965 – although it wasn’t through a lack of trying, Ingebrigtsen and fellow countryman Karsten Warholm once again putting on utterly masterful displays.
For Ingebrigtsen the magic mark here was the 3:26.00 world record for 1,500 metres set by Hicham El Guerrouj, the Moroccan running that 25 years ago, few athletes coming even close in the years since.
Ingebrigtsen went as close as any of those, winning in 3:27.95, his first sub-3:28 clocking, a new European record and improving his previous best of 3:28.32 – and also inside the Bislett meeting record of 3:29.12 which El Guerrouj ran here in that same summer of 1998.
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The 22-year-old Ingebrigtsen, justifiably elated by his run, held off the challenge of Mohamed Katir from Spain, second in 3:28.89, Yared Nuguse running an American record of 3:29.02 in third. It was also the deepest 1,500m race in history with eight athletes all going sub 3:30
Perfectly paced, Ingebrigtsen passed 400m in 55.4, 800m in 1:51.6, before hitting the front with exactly 500m to run, spurred on by the home crowd and never once wavering.
Only six days after running a two-mile world best in Paris of 7:54.10, Ingebrigtsen surely now has that 1,500m record coming further within reach.
“I see it as one of the biggest challenges I’m going to face in my running career,” he said of that record beforehand, before later adding: “But for sure, it’s possible.”
It was vintage Warholm in the 400m hurdles, the home star having his first outdoor race of the season and running the second fastest time in history, his 46.52 seconds improved the meeting record, and at the time world record of 46.70, set here in 2021.
Warholm’s last race was in winning the European Indoor 400m flat, running 45.35 in March; the American CJ Allen was a full second behind, runner-up in 47.58, still a personal best however – another measure of the quality of Warholm’s run.
Another headline event, the women’s Dream Mile, was suitably billed as an attempt on the long-standing Bislett record of 4:17.25 set by Sonia O’Sullivan this same month 29 years ago, still holding up too as the Irish women’s mile record.
Ciara Mageean certainly had that in mind, taking down O’Sullivan’s 1,500m record by two seconds when winning at the Brussels Diamond League last summer, before again improving the Irish 800m record in her first outdoor race of the season last month.
Only this pace proved a little too hot to handle, Ellie Sanford from Australia taking the field through halfway in 2:06.61, before the 17-year-old sensation Birke Haylom from Ethiopia hit the front with just over 600m still to run.
Undaunted by the distance in front, nor the runners she’d distanced, Haylom held on majestically for the win in 4:17.13, with that just about improving O’Sullivan’s meeting record from 1994 by .12 of a second – a World Under-20 record to boot.
Back down the track, Mageean was part of the chasing group, eventually settling from 11th in 4:22.03, exactly three seconds short of her mile best of 4:19.03, set in 2019: the 31-year-old, who won European and Commonwealth silver medals last year, is still building nicely toward the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August.
Meanwhile the Bislett records tumbled like dominoes, including a women’s 100m record of 10.75 seconds by the ever-consistent Marie-Josee Talou from the Ivory Coast, after Yomif Kejelcha from Ethiopia edged a thrilling 5,000m in 12:41.73, the fifth fastest in history.
Another rising star, the 19 year-old American Erriyon Knighton, earlier this month won the Florence Diamond League in 19.89, and he went better again here with his 19.77 – with that taking down the Bislett record of 19.79 which had stood to world record holder Usain Bolt since 2013.
Dutch star Femke Bol, the favourite in the women’s 400m hurdles, also improved the meeting record to 52.30, the fastest in the world this year, with world record-holder in the 400m flat, Wayde van Niekerk, once again underlining his return to top form, winning in 44.38.
