In the penultimate Diamond League competition of the year, Jakob Ingebrigtsen added another impressive performance to his career tally. On Friday, September 8, the reigning Olympic champion from Norway broke the world record in the men’s 2,000 meters at the Brussels Diamond League meeting.
Following a global championship, the last few meets on the elite circuit provide opportunities for athletes to earn redemption or tackle unmet goals, and Brussels proved no different.
Almost two weeks after getting beat for the 1500-meter crown and coming back to win gold in the 5,000 meters at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Ingebrigtsen attacked the world record in a non-traditional distance that isn’t run at global championships, but requires expert pacing.
More From Runner’s World
With the help of pacemaker Boaz Kiprugut, who led the field through the first 1,000 meters in 2:22.28, the 22-year-old put himself within striking distance early on. Over the last 400 meters—which he covered solo in 55.00 seconds—the two-time world champion flew into the finish line with no competitors in sight. His winning time of 4:43.13 broke the previous 4:44.79 world record set by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999. Ingebrigtsen ran about 3:48-mile pace to hit the mark.
“It’s always fun to break a record. This one qualifies as a world record and not as a world best,” Ingebrigtsen, who set a world best in the two-mile distance last June, told reporters in the mixed zone. “I know I was able to break this one, but I had some kind of virus ten days ago and I didn’t really know how I would be feeling today. However I felt really good and ran a good race. To be honest this record wasn’t a difficult one for me. Sure, when you have to do it alone, it’s really tough, but I got great help from the pacemakers. Actually they were able to help me more than I expected.”
Kicking off the meet, Addy Wiley set an all-time, all-dates collegiate best in the women’s 1500 meters. The 19-year-old who competes for Huntington University, an NAIA school in Huntington, Indiana, finished eighth in her first ever Diamond League competition. Racing against global medalists, Wiley finished in 3:59.17, smashing her previous 4:03.22 personal best set in June.
Because the performance took place outside of the collegiate season, Wiley’s time is considered a collegiate best, though she ran faster than the 3:59.90 collegiate record set by Jenny Simpson in 2009.
The historic mark is the latest in a series of breakthroughs for Wiley, who became the fastest American teenager in history when she ran 4:03 at the Music City Distance Carnival in Nashville after winning two NAIA titles earlier this summer. On September 4, she ran 1:57.64, becoming the second-fastest all-time, all-dates collegiate 800-meter runner in history behind reigning Olympic champion Athing Mu.
About an hour later, Shericka Jackson continued to chip away at her attempt to break the world record in the women’s 200 meters. After coming within 0.07 seconds of the time while winning the 200-meter title in Budapest, the Jamaican sprinter expressed determination to improve on the mark in the last two Diamond League meets of the year.
During the Brussels pre-race press conference, the 29-year-old stated her intent to lower Florence Griffith-Joyner’s time of 21.34 set in 1988. On Friday, she came up short of her goal but still ran the fourth-fastest time in history. Her 21.48 victory is a Diamond League and meet record.
“You just have to put in your best and that’s what I did today,” Jackson told reporters. “It felt really good tonight, I definitely feel like I’m getting there, closer to that record.”
Jackson and other top athletes will get another shot on September 16 and 17 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, the final stop on the 2023 Diamond League circuit.
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
