Jakob Ingebrigtsen eyes world record at Brussels Diamond League

Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen returns to the track on Friday night in Brussels, targeting the 2,000m world record of 4:44.79 held by Moroccan middle-distance legend Hicham El Guerrouj. At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Ingebrigtsen was battling a mild illness that impeded his bid for double gold; for the second year in a row, he lost the world 1,500m title to a Team GB runner.

Although the 2,000m is an unusual distance in athletics, only illustrious names in middle-distance running have held the record. Legends like El Guerrouj, Steve Cram, Paavo Nurmi and John Walker have all left their mark on this prestigious record.

For Ingebrigtsen to set the record, he will need to average 57 seconds per lap and come through the one-kilometre mark at two minutes and 22 seconds or faster. The 22-year-old will have three pacemakers and a field loaded with some of the best middle-distance runners in the world, including young Dutch phenom Niels Laros, Norway’s Narve Nordås and Canada’s own Charles Philibert-Thiboutot. 

This won’t be the first time Ingebrigtsen has raced the seldom-run two-kilometre distance. He ran 4:50.01 at the Bislett Games at the Oslo Diamond League in 2020, setting a European record with the sixth-fastest time in history.

Ingebrigtsen’s recent performance at the world championships saw him fall short of another world title in the men’s 1,500m, where he was outkicked by Great Britain’s Josh Kerr in the final 200m, settling for silver for the second consecutive year. He told media post-race that he was not feeling 100 per cent heading into the race, and that it was hard to race at his best when he wasn’t healthy. A few days later, he won his second straight world 5,000m title, pulling away from Spain’s Mohamed Katir on the final lap.

Canada’s Brown and De Grasse look to bounce back in Brussels

The Canadian sprint duo of Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse arrive at the penultimate Diamond League meet of the season with hopes of improving upon their previous 200m performance in Zurich. In that race, both athletes finished off the podium in a highly competitive 200m field, which was ultimately won by world champion Noah Lyles.

De Grasse was fifth, with a time of 20.26 seconds, while Brown finished slightly behind him, with a time of 20.39 seconds–a long way off Lyles’s winning time of 19.80 seconds. After the Zurich Diamond League meet, De Grasse expressed his goal to get back under 20 seconds and achieve a season’s best time before the end of the season. He is currently coming off  a near-season’s best in the 100m at a World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Bellinzona, Switzerland, earlier in the week.

In an interview with Canadian Running, he revealed that he has been focused on rebuilding the 100m speed that propelled him to success during the 2021 season, when he led Canada to three medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

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In Brussels, Brown and De Grasse won’t have to contend with Lyles, since he is absent from the field. However, they will still face challenging competition from the likes of U.S. sprinter Kenny Bednarek and Zharnel Hughes of Great Britian. Hughes is fresh off a bronze medal in the 100m at the world championships and a third-place finish in the 200m in Zurich.