Sifan Hassan defies weather to break European 10,000m record in Hengelo

There was no world record at the FBK After Summer Competition in Hengelo, Netherlands, on Saturday (10 October) as overcast, cold and rainy weather prevented Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan from achieving their targeted fast times.

Double world champion Hassan broke the 10,000m European record as she crossed the line in 29:36.67 - the fourth fastest run in history - beating Paula Radcliffe's continental record of 30:01.09 set in Munich in 2002.

She said afterwards, "I am so happy to have run a new European record, especially a record that has stood for so long by such a strong athlete as Paula.

"It was a very difficult race today as it was so cold and wet. I was feeling really strong today and wished for a bit better conditions, but this record gives me a lot of confidence."

The Dutch runner was well inside world record pace at halfway, running the first 5000m in 14:37.

She had 'Wavelight' technology to help her with pacemaking, but deteriorating conditions saw her fall behind her goal.

That means Almaz Ayana's mark of 29:17.45 set in the final at Rio 2016 remains intact.

Hassan finished a long way clear of Ethiopia's Tsehay Gemechu who took second in 30:57.73.

The 27-year-old was aiming for her second world record in the space of a few weeks having broken the rarely run one-hour world record in Brussels in September.

Hassan who also holds the one-mile and 5km road world record, covered 18.930km beating the previous world record of 18.517km.

She now heads to Poland where she will make her debut at the World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia on 17 October.

Reigning Olympic 1500m champion Kipyegon was denied in her attempt at Svetlana Masterkova’s 24-year-old 1000m world record of 2:28.98.

The Kenyan was well outside, clocking 2:32.82 in her third try this season.

She was just 0.17s shy of the Russian's mark at the Monaco Diamond League on 14 August and also broke 2:30 in Brussels last month.

The 1000m record is one of the two long-standing female middle-distance world records with Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 800m mark of 1:53.28 standing since 1983.

The men's 5000m was billed as a clash between 2019 world silver medallist Yomif Kejelcha and Australia's Stewart McSweyn.

It was the Ethiopian who came out on top, clocking 13:12.84 with McSweyn just over three seconds behind.

They were a long way shy of Joshua Cheptegei’s world record of 12:35.36 set at the Monaco Diamond League in August.

Only this week, the Ugandan made more history by breaking Kenenisa Bekele's 10,000m world record in Valencia.