Jakob Ingebrigtsen on mission for two-mile world record at the 2023 Paris Diamond League
The Norwegian Olympic 1500m champion takes part in the rarely-run two-miler with Daniel Komen’s 26-year-old world record on the line. Olympics.com looks at what he needs to do to succeed, and other rare historic records that today’s top athletes may be tempted to take on.
Athletics
Jakob Ingebrigtsen doesn’t like talking about world records. But many others in the world of athletics are doing just that as the Norwegian prepares to compete in the non-Olympic distance two-mile event at the 2023 Paris Diamond League on 9 June.
Everything is set up for Ingebrigtsen to attempt to beat Daniel Komen’s time of 7:58.61 - a record that has stood since 1997. Not only will an elite field of pacers set the tempo, but the athletes racing will also have the benefit of Wavelight technology, which uses lights on the inside of the track to show the pace of the world record in real time.
If Ingebrigtsen breaks the record, he will have succeeded where many other of the world’s most celebrated distance runners have failed.
Mo Farah, Eliud Kipchoge and Joshua Cheptegei are just some of the big name athletes to have attempted the distance yet failed to beat Komen’s mark, with the nearest time an 8:01.08 set by the great Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie less than two months before Komen’s historic run.
Why is the two-mile distance so rarely run?
Only 170 recorded times are listed on the World Athletics database for the two-mile run, proving just how rare an event it is in elite competition.
Even World Athletics no longer lists the best time as a world record, using the term “world best” instead.
But that doesn’t mean the distance is not historic.
Back in the 1960s, athletes such as Australia’s Tokyo 1964 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Ron Clarke (8:19.6) set fast times over the distance, while British track legend Steve Ovett ran 8:13.51 in 1978.
The two-mile has more recently been superseded by distances such as the 3000m and 5000m, with the latter now featuring at every Olympic Games.
However, it was the ‘90s that proved to be the heyday of the two-mile race, with both of the top two times in history set in 1997.
For Ingebrigtsen, one of the greatest middle-distance runners competing today, the two-mile (or 3,218.688m) distance fits firmly within his comfort zone.
Already the Olympic record holder in the 1500m, his victory in the 5000m at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon proved his ability to take longer challenges in his stride.
And while he hasn’t set an official time over two miles, this may be the best chance we have of seeing the record falling in the coming years.
What other historic records have been set over rarely-run distances?
While today the majority of international competitions include standard Olympic distance races, there are a wide range of records that have been set in less commonly-run events.
The men’s one-hour race sees athletes compete to see how far they can run against the clock, rather than over a set distance.
Mo Farah holds the fastest time in history in that race, with 21,330m covered in 60 minutes on 4 September 2020.
The mile is another much-loved distance that does not feature at the Olympics, with Roger Bannister of Great Britain famously breaking the four-minute barrier for the first time ever in 1954.
Nowadays, the record for the fastest-ever mile belongs to Hicham El Guerrouj, the legendary Moroccan setting a time of 3:43.13 in 1999.
El Guerrouj also owns the 2000m world record (4:44.79), while Komen again holds the record of 7:20.67 over 3000m set in 1996 - another of his marks that has stood for more than a quarter of a century.
And what about the 150m world record of 14.35 set by Usain Bolt in 2009? The top six times over that distance have been run on a straight track that forgoes the regulation bend seen in athletics stadiums today.
Find out more about some of the non-Olympic distance men’s records in existence today in the table below.