Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui ran the third fastest 1000m in history in Trier on Tuesday (2) evening.
Ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo where he will compete in the 800m, Attaoui stopped the clock at a world lead and Spanish record of 2:12.25, just missing the European record which still stands to Sebastian Coe at 2:12.18 from 1981 and Noah Ngeny’s world record of 2:11.96 from 1999.
Attaoui won a breakthrough silver in the 800m at the European Athletics Championships in Rome last summer before finishing a creditable fifth at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The Spaniard won on home soil at the European Athletics Team Championships in Madrid this June in a championship record of 1:44.01 and he also won his first ever Diamond League, winning in Paris in 1:42.73.
3:31.65 1500m for Chapple
European indoor 800m champion Samuel Chapple from the Netherlands stepped up in distance to win the 1500m in a lifetime best of 3:31.65 ahead of Australia’s Jude Thomas in 3:31.87.
There was also a notable performance in fifth from European U20 bronze medallist Elliot Vermeulen from Belgium who ran a massive lifetime best of 3:33.51 to move to fourth on the European all-time U20 list before Niels Laros (3:29.54), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:30.16) and Hakon Moe Berg (3:30.28).
Other significant performances included world U20 3000m champion Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen winning the 3000m in a lifetime best of 7:40.21 by 0.01 ahead of Kamil Herzyk who clocked a Polish record of 7:40.22, breaking a mark set by the late 1980 Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Bronislaw Malinowski who clocked 7:42.4 in 1974.
Two-time European 3000m steeplechase champion Gesa Felicitas Krause finished third in the 1500m in a lifetime best of 4:04.91.