Letesenbet Gidey sets a world 10,000m record in Hengelo (© Global Sports Communication)
Women’s world 10,000m records
29:01.03 Letesenbet Gidey (ETH) Hengelo 8 June 2021
29:06.82 Sifan Hassan (NED) Hengelo 6 June 2021
Women's world U20 indoor 800m record
1:59.03 Keely Hodgkinson (GBR) Vienna 30 January 2021
Men’s world indoor 60m hurdles record
7.29 Grant Holloway (USA) Madrid 24 February 2021
Men’s world 400m hurdles record
46.70 Karsten Warholm (NOR) Oslo 1 July 2021
With a few days until athletics action begins at the Tokyo Olympic Games, the world record marks set by Letesenbet Gidey, Sifan Hassan, Keely Hodgkinson, Grant Holloway and Karsten Warholm have been ratified.
Dutch star Hassan ran 29:06.82 at the FBK Games – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Hengelo on 6 June to take more than 10 seconds off the world 10,000m record of 29:17.45 which had been set by Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana at the Olympic Games in Rio on 12 August 2016.
(© FBK Games)
That mark would not stand for long, however, as just two days later Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey improved the record by another five seconds on the same track in the Dutch city, running 29:01.03 to win the Ethiopian Trials. Both marks have now been ratified.
Gidey, who last year set a world 5000m record of 14:06.62, said: “I expected to run the world record. Next I will try again, to run maybe 28:56.”
The pair are set to go head-to-head over 10,000m at the Olympics, where double world champion Hassan is also entered for the 1500m and 5000m.
Less than a month after those 10,000m records it was Warholm’s turn to add his name to the world record book as the Norwegian two-time world champion clocked 46.70 at the Oslo Bislett Games, the fourth Wanda Diamond League meeting of this season, to break Kevin Young’s long-standing world 400m hurdles record of 46.78 set at the Olympics in Barcelona on 6 August 1992.
(© Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
With Sydney McLaughlin having clocked 51.90 at the US Olympic Trials, it meant that both the women's and men's world 400m hurdles records were broken within the same week.
"It's very special to be the first to beat Kevin Young's world record," said Warholm. “All respect to my competitors but it's very special and nice for me to be able to be the first to break that world record. It was important to me.”
Over the winter it was another hurdler, Holloway, creating history. Racing at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Madrid on 24 February, the world 110m hurdles champion clocked 7.29 to improve Colin Jackson’s long-standing world indoor 60m hurdles record of 7.30 set on 6 March 1994.
(© Getty Images)
“I wouldn’t say it was a perfect race, but I tied my PR in the heat and that usually means I run faster in the final,” said Holloway. “I just went out there and executed my race to the best of my ability.
“I said before the race that if the record fell, it fell. But my main goal was just to have fun and that’s what I did.”
Also during the indoor season, Britain's Hodgkinson ran 1:59.03 at the Indoor Track & Field Vienna meeting on 30 January to take exactly two seconds off the previous world U20 indoor 800m record set by Ethiopia’s Meskerem Legesse on 14 February 2004.
“The race was perfect,” said the then 18-year-old Hodgkinson, who retained her British title in June to secure her place on the team for Tokyo. “I’ve never gone through the bell that quickly before, but I tried not to panic. It couldn’t have gone better, I’m really happy.”
(© Alfred Nevsimal / ÖLV)
The world U20 indoor 800m record was further improved by the USA's Athing Mu on 27 February as she ran 1:58.40 at the SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That record was ratified in May.
World Athletics
