Matt Hughes narrowly misses Canadian steeplechase record in Monaco

The story of the day in Monaco was Joshua Cheptegei’s world 5,000m record of 12:35.36. Cheptegei took the race out on a steady pace and kept it moving throughout. He breaks Kenenisa Bekele’s record of 12:37, which stood for 16 years. Outside of the extremely impressive world record, there were countless stellar performances, including those from our two Canadian athletes who competed. 

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RELATED: Joshua Cheptegei breaks 5,000m world record

In the men’s steeplechase, Matt Hughes was vocal about his quest to break his own Canadian record of 8:11. While he came up just over four seconds short, he ran a gutsy race and was with the leaders until about 300m to go. There’s certainly more in the tank, and Hughes will be hungry to show the world. 

Marco Arop took the men’s 800m out strong, leading until 100m to go, when he was passed by Donovan Brazier, the 2019 World Champion. Arop ran a new personal best of 1:44.14, improving on his old PB by 0.11 seconds, which he set at the 2019 Pan Am Games. 

In the women’s 5,000m, Sifan Hassan, favourite to win, dropped out with just under 1K to go. The race was won by 2019 World Cross-Country champion Helen Obiri in a meet record after closing extremely well. She would drag British runner Laura Weightman to a massive personal best of nine seconds. 

RELATED: 5,000m world record attempt today at Monaco Diamond League

Insane 1500 in Monaco.

Despite a horrific pace job, Tim Cheruiyot holds on to win, missing his pb by .04.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen — WHO IS 19 YEARS OLD — runs European record of 3:28.68 to move to #8 on the world all-time list.

Wightman joins Farah, Cram, Coe in GB sub-3:30 club. pic.twitter.com/Pv9cgIvSyU

— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) August 14, 2020

In the men’s 1,500m, despite a rough pacing job to start the race, Timothy Cheruiyot held onto the win, missing his personal best by a hair and dragging Jakob Ingebrigtsen to a European record of 3:28.68 (he’s only 19). He surpasses Mo Farah’s record, set in 2013. 

In the women’s 1,000m, Faith Kipyegon ran the second-fastest 1,000m in history, clocking a 2:29.15. In a race littered with personal bests, she also took four other women to national records. 

For full results, see here.