Mo Katir, the athlete who will lead Spanish Athletics at the next World Championships in Budapest (18-27 August), showed his great form as the sun was already setting at the Luis II Stadium in Monaco by measuring the European record for the 5,000m with a mark of 12m 45.01 and the continental records of 12m (12m 48.45) with the infidel by the 48.45 -JAK -Bundles lowered. for two years. Katir finished fourth in a test that would break the world record, 12:35.36 seconds, with hare steps of 2:33 for 1,000; 5min 7sec 2,000m and 7min 37sec 3,000m. The heat and humidity and the tremendous equality of the world record contenders, who finally chose victory over the mark, shattered expectations. Victory went to Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet (12:42.18 minutes). “The other athletes were very strong, but I’m strong now too, so I tried to win to the last meter,” said Katir, 25, who broke the continental record in the 3,000m indoor track in Liévin, France (7:24.68 minutes) in March. “Actually, my goal is to set the European record, so I’m very happy.”
The athlete from Mula, trained by Gaby Lorente like European 800m champion Mariano García, will contest the 1,500m test at the Spanish Championships this weekend, although he plans to contest both the 1,500m and 5,000m of the World Cup in Budapest. The Monaco competition was his first competition since June 24, when he won the European 1,500m team championships in Silesia. Although he ran the 1500m in 3:28.89 on June 15, which was his second-best mark ever, Katir felt at the time that he had practiced the volume very well but needed to step up to be faster. So in July he focused on the high altitude in the Sierra Nevada to match the speed he showed yesterday at the Monaco circuit. Another Spaniard took part in the race, Thierry Ndikumwenayo, who set his personal best time, also under 13 minutes (12:55.47).
The meeting, the Diamond League of Monaco, heated it up when the sun was still hot and the humidity was skyrocketing. Faith Kipyegon surpassed the world record for the mile by almost 5 seconds (4 minutes and 7.64 seconds, a good standard for 1,500m) held by Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands (4 minutes and 12.33 seconds) since 2019. The mile record (1.6m and 09m) is the third world record in seven weeks of a phenomenal summer in Europe, after the Kenyan athlete was surpassed after the 1,500m (3:49.11s) on June 2 in Florence and the 5,000m (14:5.20s) on June 9 in Paris. Like Katir, 29-year-old Kipyegon, a mother of one and a two-time Olympic and world champion, will try to beat her times in the 1,500m and 5,000m doubles in August in Budapest, a year before the Paris Games. On the world record mile, Catalan Esther Guerrero achieved her personal best (4:22.28 minutes), just over a second below the national record.
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