“I’ve tried to beat the world record several times, but tonight we made a decision to push ourselves to go looking for a good time”.
Advertisement
But she went seven seconds quicker than her Rio time to set a new world record of 8mins 52.78secs.
“I was not expecting such a big difference with the record”.
IAAF president Seb Coe was among the first to congratulate the 23-year old, who crossed the line in three minutes 55.22 seconds, breaking the national record for the second time in five weeks.
Behind her six women set personal bests, and there were season’s bests for USA runners Shannon Rowbury, fourth – as she was in Rio – in 3:58.00 and Rio bronze medallist Jennifer Simpson, who recorded 3:58.19 in sixth place.
Kendra Harrison claimed victory in the 100m hurdles, Natasha Hastings won the 400m and Nicholas Bett narrowly beat Kerron Clement in the 400m hurdles.
Olympic silver medalist Renaud Lavillenie of France won the pole vault with an effort of 5.93 meters, Czech Jakub Vadlejch won the javelin, and American Chris Carter won the triple jump in 16.92 meters, with Cuban Alexis Copello second in 16.90.
“The race was awesome”, Muir said after her epic win.
Perkovic produced an escalatingly excellent sequence of throws finishing with a best of 67.62m as, behind her, home thrower Melina Robert-Michon and Denia Caballero of Cuba replicated their second and third places in Rio with bests of, respectively, 64.26 and 61.98.
Advertisement
Ben Youssef Meite matched the time of 9.96 seconds he ran in the final in Rio to win the 100m, Alfred Kipketer triumphed in the 800m and a world-lead time of 7:28.19 was set by Yomif Kejelcha in the men’s 3000m.
