Daniel Komen’s 26-year world record broken
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Reading Time: 2min | Fri. 09.06.23. | 22:30
World Athletics no longer lists the best time as a world record, using the term “world best” instead for the distance.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, on 9 June lived up to expectations as he ran 7:54.10 to become the fastest man ever over the two-mile distance (or 3,218.688m), breaking Daniel Komen's World Best from 1997, at the Paris DL in 7:54.10.
The 5000m World champion broke the previous record by over 4 seconds, finishing ahead of Ishmael Kipkirui who ran 8:09.23 and Kuma Girma in 8:10.34.
A signature performance ✍️
— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) June 9, 2023
Olympic 1500m champ Jakob Ingebrigtsen drops an amazing 7:54.10 2-mile to break Daniel Komen’s 1997 world record by 4+ seconds. The Norwegian great, 4 years younger than the record he broke, unofficially split 4:00.3-3:53.8.pic.twitter.com/4IezjPKtAz
Everything was set up for Ingebrigtsen to attempt to beat Komen’s time of 7:58.61, a record that stood since 1997.
Not only was an elite field of pacers setting the tempo, but the athletes had the benefit of Wavelight technology, which uses lights on the inside of the track to show the pace of the world record in real time.
Ingebrigtsen feat has seen him succeeded where many other of the world’s most celebrated distance runners have failed.
Mo Farah, Eliud Kipchoge and Joshua Cheptegei are just some of the big-name athletes to have attempted the distance yet failed to beat Komen’s mark, with the nearest time an 8:01.08 set by the great Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie less than two months before Komen’s historic run.
The distance is so rarely run that only 170 recorded times are listed on the World Athletics database for the two-mile run, proving just how rare an event it is in elite competition.
Even World Athletics no longer lists the best time as a world record, using the term “world best” instead.
