On Friday, September 8, the King Baudouin Stadium crowd went absolutely wild as they watched Norwegian athlete Jakob Ingebrigtsen set a brand-new world record. The 22-year-old ran the 2000 meters in 4:43:13, breaking Hicham El Guerrouj’s previous world record.
El Gerrouj achieved three world records in a span of two years, in 1998 and 1999. He established the 1500-meter world record in Rome at 3:26:00, the mile record at 3:43:13 in Rome, and the 2000-meter world record at 4:44:79 in Berlin. And for almost a quarter of a century, no athlete has ever broken any of his records.
Well, at least not until Ingebrigsten came onto the scene.
The Norwegian athlete first declared his intention to try and break the record set by El Guerrouj on August 15. His strategy was to aim for 57-second laps and then go for a strong finish on the last lap.
Nearly a month later, he has now achieved his goal, proving once again that no dream is ever too big for anyone.
The Ingebrigtsen record
The target time to reach halfway was 2:21, but at the time that was reached, Ingebrigsen had already gone over 2:22:28. Nevertheless, Ingebrigtsen still gave off a calm and laid-back vibe. Following his strategy, he then accelerated his strides. When he passed the 1300 mark, he had managed to place a sizeable gap between himself and his competitors.
As he rounded the final lap, he was met with a roar from the crowd, which had stood to support him as he sought to break the previous 24-year-old world record held by El Guerrroj. In the end, he achieved his goal, clocking 54.9 seconds on the penultimate lap to complete the race in a time of 4:43.13.
“It’s always fun to break a record,” Ingebrigtsen said. “This one qualifies as a world record and not as a world best. I knew I was able to break this one, but I had some kind of virus 10 days ago and I didn’t really know how I would be feeling today.”, Ingebrigtsen said.
“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.”, Ingebrigsten added.
The only disappointment of the 2023 season is probably the one he wanted to win the most: the 1500m at the World Championships. Unfortunately, he lost out to Great Britain’s Josh Kerr for the second year in a row.
Nonetheless, this latest record was just the latest brilliant performance in what has so far been a near flawless 2023 season for Ingebretsen, who has won 10 out of 11 races, including 5 out of 6 in Diamond League point events.
Along with Ingebrigsten’s world record, there were numerous personal bests in the mix:
1 Jakob INGEBRIGTSEN NOR 4:43.13 – World Record
2 Reynold Kipkorir CHERUIYOT KEN 4:48.14 -World U20 best
3 Stewart MCSWEYN AUS 4:48.77- Oceanian record
4 Niels LAROS NED 4:49.68- European U20 record
5 Mario GARCÍA ESP 4:49.85- Spanish record
6 Narve Gilje NORDÅS NOR 4:50.64 – Personal best
7 Abel KIPSANG KEN 4:50.68
8 Charles PHILIBERT-THIBOUTOT CAN 4:51.54 AR- North American record
9 Ruben VERHEYDEN BEL 4:52.37- Belgian record
10 Samuel TANNER NZL 4:53.09
11 Jochem VERMEULEN BEL 5:03.24
Mounir AKBACHE FRA DNF
Ismael DEBJANI BEL DNF
Boaz KIPRUGUT KEN DNF
Cornelius TUWEI KEN DNF
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The photo above is from a YouTube screen grab