Great Britain’s Phoebe Gill, who only turned 17 last month, shattered the European U18 800m best in the Belfast Irish Milers Meeting, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger meeting, on Saturday (11).
Gill stopped the clock at an incredible 1:57.86 - the second fastest time in history in her age-group globally - to demolish the previous European U18 best of 1:59.65 which was set by East Germany’s Marion Geissler-Huber all the way back in 1979.
Gill, who is renowned domestically for her aggressive style of racing, pushed the pacemaker through halfway in under 57 seconds to set up the prospect of a very fast time.
And running solo on the second lap, Gill strode away for a truly momentous victory and time.
She slashed almost four seconds from her previous lifetime best of 2:01.50 and her winning time was also an automatic qualifying time for the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and Olympic Games Paris 2024.
But Gill is also eligible for the Banska Bystrica 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships from 18-21 July where she could be one of the prospective stars and possibly follow in the footsteps of her idol Keely Hodgkinson, who won the 800m title in 2018.
The men's 800m also produced fast times with Great Britain's Callum Dodds taking more than one second off his lifetime best with 1:44.79 to nudge out former European U23 bronze medallist Tom Randolph in 1:44.91.
Ireland's Sophie Becker also smashed her lifetime best in the 400m, winning in 51.13 ahead of Great Britain's Hannah Brier, the pacemaker for Gill in the 800m later in the programme, in 52.25.