Athletics: Girma breaks 25-year-old 3,000m world indoor record, Duplantis wins
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Ethiopia's Lamecha Girma celebrates winning the men's 3000m final race during an indoor athletics meeting in Lievin on Feb 15.
PHOTO: AFP
LIEVIN – Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma shattered the 25-year-old world indoor 3,000m record on Wednesday by more than one second at the Lievin meet in France as Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis won his third successive pole vault event.
Girma clocked 7min 23.81sec to beat the old mark of 7:24.90 set by Kenya’s Daniel Komen in Budapest in February 1998.
“I am so happy with this result,” said the 22-year-old in an interview with World Athletics.
“I was talking about this world record attempt for the past three days.
“My brother is my coach. He told me I had it in me and, of course, I believed him.
“I felt really good in training and it was my best form ever, plus the crowd was very supportive today.
“The pacers and the Wavelight were perfect – it all clicked. I have raced here several times in this meeting.
“The atmosphere and the crowd never disappoint. I hope the record stays for a long time.”
The Ethiopian raced alone over the closing four laps and was followed home by Spaniard Mohamed Katir, who broke the European record in 7:24.68, which was also under the old world mark.
Girma is a specialist in the 3,000m outdoor steeplechase, an event in which he was the 2020 Olympic silver medallist.
He was also runner-up in the world championships in Doha in 2019 and in 2022 at Eugene. Indoors, he won silver in the 3,000m at the 2022 worlds.
World and Olympic champion Duplantis easily won the pole vault with a clearance of 6.01m but the charismatic Swede opted not to try to beat his world record of 6.21m.
It was a third successive win for the 23-year-old in the indoor season after 6.10m in Uppsala on Feb 2 and 6.06m in Berlin last Friday.
He did enough to defeat Italy’s Claudio Stecchi (5.82m) and Kurtis Marschall of Australia (also 5.82m).
Despite his victory, Duplantis was less than pleased with his overall performance.
“This didn’t feel good. It went not how I wanted and I can’t really explain why,” he said on the Olympics website.
“My body just didn’t responded how I wanted. I felt a bit flat.”
Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala claimed victory in the 60m in 6.54sec, edging out Italy’s Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs, who clocked 6.57, with Arthur Cisse of Ivory Coast third in 6.59.
Britain’s in-form 800m specialist Keely Hodgkinson set a world-leading time of 1min 57.71sec as she dominated the field, leaving Kenya’s Commonwealth champion Mary Moraa trailing 20m behind in 2:00.61. AFP
