Emmanuel Korir ran to a new personal best and meet record during the second day of London Diamond League today.
The USA based student won the men’s 800m at the Olympic Stadium in 1:42.05 to add on his Doha and Eugene titles to three titles.
He lowered world 800m record holder David Rudisha’s meet record of 1:42.91 set in 2011, becoming the sixth fastest in the history of the race.
Korir also erased his previous personal best of 1:43.10 set in Monaco last year besides beating the World Lead time of 1:42.14 set by Nijel Amos of Botswana when winning in Monaco on Friday.
Korir edged out Clayton Murphy from USA to second place in 1:43.12 as compatriot Wycliffe Kinyamal, who won in Shanghai and Rome, came in third in 1:43.12, losing to Murphy in a photo-finish.
Kinyamal’s third place finish also saw him improve his personal best of 1:43.91 when he won in Shanghai with a meet record.
Nijel was a pale shadow of the man who had won in Monaco two days ago, coming in fourth in 1:43.29. “It’s important to beat those guys because they’re all really strong,” said Korir, 23.
World and Commonwealth 5,000m champion Hellen Obiri might have finished third in the women’s One Mile race but her time of 4:16.15 was enough to set a new National Record and personal best.
Obiri, fresh from winning women’s 5,000m race in Rabat on July 13 in world lead 14:21.75, lost the battle to World 1,500m silver medallist Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands.
Hassan won the race in a Diamond League, meet and national record time of 4:14.71, relegating Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay to second place in 4:16.14