Laura Muir set a new British 1500m record while rival Faith Kipyegon broke the world record at the Paris Diamond League. Yaroslava Mahuchikh also set a new record in the women’s high jump.
Muir, 31, clocked three minutes 53.79 seconds to take third place, improving the national record she set while winning Olympic silver in Tokyo three years ago.
Kenya’s Kipyegon ran an incredible 3:49.04 to win ahead of Australia’s Jessica Hull. The 30-year-old now aims for a third consecutive Olympic title in Paris next month.
British champion Georgia Bell achieved a personal best of 3:56.54 for fifth place as she prepares for her Olympic debut, while Katie Snowden finished ninth in 3:58.13.
Ukraine’s world high jump champion Mahuchikh, 22, showcased her gold-medal potential for Paris by surpassing Belarusian Stefka Kostadinova’s 1987 record of 2.09 metres with a first-time clearance at 2.10m. Briton Morgan Lake placed ninth with a jump of 1.92m.
Elizabeth Bird ran a season’s best of 9:09.07 to secure third place in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, won by Bahrain’s world champion Winfred Yavi in 9:03.68.
Laviai Nielsen set a personal best of 50.76 seconds for fifth in the women’s 400m, won by the Dominican Republic’s world champion Marileidy Paulino in 49.20 seconds.
Two Diamond League meetings remain before the Paris 2024 Olympics. The ninth event in the series will be held in Monaco on Friday, followed by a final opportunity for athletes to fine-tune their preparations in London on Saturday, July 20.
Additionally, on Sunday, Keely Hodgkinson won the women’s 800m at the FBK Games in the Netherlands with a time of 1:57.36, while Melissa Courtney-Bryant claimed victory in the 1500m with a time of 4:03.58.
Kipyegon & Mahuchikh make statements as Olympics approach
Following a stunning 2023 season in which she set world records over 1500m, 5,000m and the mile, Kipyegon had not raced this year until Kenya’s Olympic trials last month – but she has quickly reminded her rivals why she remains the heavy favourite to add to her six global golds.
Only Hull dared follow as Kipyegon raced the pace-setting lights on the inside of the track in pursuit of further history, while Muir timed her effort perfectly to finish strong and boost her belief she can once again make the Olympic podium.
“To run a British record in the city where the Olympics will be in less than a month’s time is pretty exciting, so I’m very, very happy,” Muir said.
“I think it will give me a lot of confidence going into the Games. To win an Olympic medal now will be so, so hard but it would be an amazing achievement – so I’m just going to go out there and give it my all.”
Mahuchikh, who won bronze on her Olympic debut as a teenager in Tokyo three years ago, is now the one to beat in Paris after her historic jump. The Ukrainian had previously recorded the joint-fourth highest jump in history with a personal best of 2.07m and secured victory over Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers by clearing 2.03m.
Maintaining her momentum, Mahuchikh, who was forced to flee her war-torn home country two years ago following Russia’s invasion, celebrated with her coach after setting the world record on her first attempt.
“Coming into this competition, I felt I could jump 2.07m and maybe 2.10m,” she said. “Finally, I signed Ukraine to the history of world athletics.”
Armand Duplantis, though unable to set a world record in Paris, still claimed victory in the men’s pole vault. The Swedish athlete had broken the world record for the eighth time at the opening Diamond League of the season in April and had come close to improving his mark of 6.24m on several occasions, most recently at the European Championships.
Since becoming the Olympic champion at the age of 21 in Tokyo three years ago, Duplantis has won back-to-back world golds. He secured his latest victory with a clearance of 6.00m.