Dundee Hawkhill Harrier Laura Muir set a British women’s 1,500 metres record at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.
The Scot, who finished seventh in the Olympic 1,500m final in Rio, took more than two seconds off her previous best to lower the British record to 3:55.22.
“The race was amazing,” Muir told paris.diamondleague.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReJTaDi1SI8
“I couldn’t believe the time, especially since I didn’t do one track session since Rio. I just went with the pacemaker and I knew I had to dig in and hold on during the third lap.”
Muir’s coach Andy Young was impressed and hailed the Milnathort athlete.
“I have been watching athletics for well over 30 years and that has to be one of the greatest female distance runs I have ever seen, and I don’t even need to be biased,” he said.
Muir led at the bell following a 61- second lap, pulling away from Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) and European silver medallist Sifan Hassan (Netherlands).
Maintaining her 10-metre lead, Muir powered down the home straight to clock 3:55.22, bettering her own UK record set at the London Anniversary Games last month.
With the exception of world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, no one in the world has run this fast in 19 years.
Kipyegon followed in 3:56.72, with Hassan clocking a season’s best 3:57.13.
The star of the night, however, was Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Ruth Jebet who set a world record for the event.
Teenager Jebet, the Kenyan now competing for Bahrain, ran the second-fastest time in history to win gold in Rio less than a fortnight ago. But she went seven seconds quicker than her Rio time to set a world record of 8:52.78.
Great Britain’s Lorraine Ugen was second in the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.80m.
Desiree Henry (22.46 seconds) was second to Holland’s Dafne Schippers (22.13) in the women’s 200m.
Cindy Ofili (12.66) finished third in the 100m hurdles.
British sprinters Joel Fearon (10.05) and Chijindu Ujah (10.15) finished fourth and eighth respectively in the men’s 100m.
