Athletics: One-hour world running records fall in Belgium

Both Sifan Hassan of The Netherlands (L) and Mo Farah of Great Britain became world record holders on Saturday. Photo / Photosport, Getty

With no fans to watch from the stands, four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah and Sifan Hassan both broke the rarely run one-hour world record.

In an empty stadium because of the coronavirus crisis, Hassan first improved the previous women's mark of 18.517 kilometres set by Ethiopia's Dire Tune at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting in 2008 by covering 18.930 kilometres at the Memorial Van Damme.

In the final race of the meeting, which is part of the Diamond League series, Farah broke Haile Gebrselassie's 13-year-old record of 21,285 kilometres on his return to the track. Farah, who ran with his training partner Bashir Abdi, established a new world record of 21.330 kilometres.

"I'm very happy to break the world record today. What an amazing way to do it and to show people what is possible," said the 37-year-old Farah.

Hassan and Kenya's world marathon record-holder Brigid Kosgei fought toe to toe at the King Baudouin stadium. Hassan accelerated in the final minute to leave the marathon world-record holder powerless in her slipstream.

"An hour is long. It takes a lot of concentration and focus. After the first half I found my rhythm. I'm really happy with this record," Hassan said.

Reigning Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya failed in her bid to break the 1,000 metres record, crossing in 2 minutes 29.92 seconds, shy of Svetlana Masterkova's 2:28.98 record set in the same stadium back in 1996.

Kipyegon set the second best time over the distance last month in Monaco, in 2:29:15. Following the sustained tempo of a pacemaker, she looked on track to set a new best mark until the last 150 metres where she faded in the finale.