Mo Farah and Sifan Hassan broke world records for the farthest distance run in one hour on a track, a rarely contested event, at a largely empty stadium in Brussels on Friday.
Farah, a four-time Olympic champion racing on the track for the first time in three years, bettered Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie‘s mark from 2007 by 45 meters. Farah covered 21,330 meters, or 13.25 miles. The Brit surged past Belgian training partner Bashir Abdi with a minute left.
“Show the people what is possible,” Farah said.
Hassan covered 18,930 meters -- or 11.76 miles -- running more than a full lap more than the previous women’s record.
“I didn’t feel good,” at the start, said Hassan, who dropped out of her only other race this year, a 5000m in Monaco three weeks ago. “After the 30 minute [mark], every single minute is very easy.”
Ethiopian Dire Tune held the old women’s mark of 18,517 meters -- or 11.5 miles -- set in 2008.
Brigid Kosgei, the marathon world-record holder, and 2020 Tokyo Marathon champion Lonah Salpeter also beat the old record, but Kosgei was disqualified after it appeared she took at least one step on the inside of the track while clocking 47 laps averaging 76 seconds per lap.
Hassan and Kosgei were expected to easily break the record given each of their personal bests in the half marathon (13.1 miles) would have put them on pace to reach 11.5 miles in well under 60 minutes.
In the pole vault, Swedish 20-year-old Mondo Duplantis took three unsuccessful tries at breaking Sergey Bubka‘s outdoor world record of 6.14 meters. Duplantis holds the overall record of 6.18 meters from an indoor meet in February.
The Diamond League season finishes with meets in Rome on Sept. 17 and Doha on Sept. 25.
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