Jakob Ingebrigtsen beats brother Henrik, sets unofficial Norwegian 5K record of 13:29

On Wednesdsay evening, Jakob and Henrik Ingebrigtsen ran record-setting 5K times at a race in Stavanger, Norway. The two brothers entered the race with the Norwegian 5K record of 13:37 (set by Sondre Nordstad Moen last year in Monaco) in their sights, and both delivered, with Jakob edging out his older brother Henrik by two seconds and running an unofficial national record of 13:29. This was the first time racing a road 5K for both brothers.

Pending Norwegian 5 km record for Jakob Ingebrigtsen moments ago: about 13:29. Previous record was 13:37. pic.twitter.com/DzfcMRsEJo

— David Monti (@d9monti) May 20, 2020

Second-fastest in Europe

Jakob’s run ties the current official European 5K record, set by Switzerland’s Julien Wanders in 2019 at the same race in Monaco where Moen set the previous Norwegian record. Unofficially, though, Jimmy Gressier of France has the best 5K time run by a European after posting a 13:18 earlier in 2020 (once again in Monaco), which has yet to be ratified. Once Gressier’s record is made official, Ingebrigtsen and Wanders will share the second-best European time.

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Jakob’s 5K record adds to his 5,000m national record of 13:02, which he ran at the London Diamond League last summer, and his 10K road record of 27:54 from October 2019 in Norway. Henrik owns the 3,000m national record, with a time of 7:36.85 from the Oslo Diamond League last year.

A return to racing

This was a big day for running, because it wasn’t just another COVID-19 time trial run, it was an actual race. To follow Norwegian public health guidelines, the race had a limited number of entries, and runners had to qualify by showing times they’d run in 2019 or this year. There was a 5K and 10K race, and there were heats of six runners that went off every 30 seconds.

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More running events are set to take place in Norway as the country slowly moves back to normalcy following COVID-19. Next month, on June 11, the Impossible Games will be held in Oslo. This event will replace the originally-scheduled Oslo Diamond League event (which was also set for June 11), and it will have a limited number of competitions. Jakob and Henrik are both on the start list for the 2,000m at the Impossible Games, and their other brother Filip has said he will compete as well, although he has yet to specify in which event.