On a night when the extraordinary almost became routine, one word kept ringing out across the Stade Charléty PA system: “Incroyable! Incroyable! Incroyable!” There were three world records over two hours, in the women’s 5,000m, the men’s 3,000m steeplechase and the men’s two-mile race – even if World Athletics classifies the latter as a world best – along with plenty of joyous smiles.
For many athletes it was the perfect dress rehearsal for next year’s Olympics. One notable exception, though, was Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, who struggled home in fourth in the women’s 200m with a scarcely believable 22.57sec. Not only was it nearly three-quarters of a second off her personal best, it was her second-slowest time since 2018. Only two weeks ago, in her season opener in Italy, has she run worse.
For someone who won the 200m world title in 2019 and took bronze in the same event in 2022, it represented a painful night and a worrying trend. But the message from Asher-Smith is clear: there is no reason to panic, her mistakes are fixable and form is temporary, class permanent.
“I feel like I am in really good shape,” she said. “So I was a bit disappointed with that. I really did come here to win. But I feel really good. And the season is long, there are a lot of races to go.”
Asher-Smith shook her head when asked whether she was concerned before races in Oslo and Stockholm this month. “I’m never worried,” she said. “You guys know me by now, I am always very up front. I really think I am in a good place. My coach will have a few things to say because I think he was expecting me to run well.”
Another British athlete who looked on the bright side in Paris was Laura Muir, whose step up to the 5,000m for the first time since 2017 earned her a personal best but a distant seat as the Kenyan Faith Kipyegon sprinted home to claim an astonishing world record of 14min 05.20sec.
Muir, who came 11th in 14:48.14, could only watch and admire as Kipyegon collected her second world record in a week, after breaking the 1500m one in Florence. “It’s been amazing to be in two world record races in a week – and it was quite cool,” said Muir. “But it was fast and it was hard. My training’s been going really, really well. Unfortunately, it’s not really shown in these races, but I know it’s there, which is important.”
There was also a world record for Lamecha Girma in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, while the brilliant Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen – who broke the world two-mile best by more than four seconds on Friday – said it was just the start of things to come.
When the 22-year-old Ingebrigtsen, who won Olympic 1500m gold in Tokyo and the world 5,000m title last year, was asked whether he thought there was another world record in his sights, he showed his self-confidence by replying: “Just name one.”
1500m? “For sure,” came the reply. 5,000m? “Yep. My goal is to finish with 10 world records or world bests. I am going to try my best in every event from 1500m all the way to the marathon. Sometimes you run fast, sometimes you run slow, but we’ll see how it goes. And this is a good start.”
Ingebrigtsen also had a message for Britain’s Jake Wightman, who caused a major shock by beating him to world 1500m gold last summer, when asked whether he planned to chase him down at the world championships in Budapest in August. “I think he is going after me,” he said. “Not the other way around.” On this evidence, you had better believe it.
