Kenyan Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi has rewritten the history books after setting a new world record in the men's 1000m race, becoming the fastest athlete ever over the distance.
Competing at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco, Wanyonyi crossed the finish line in 2 minutes, 11.83 seconds, eclipsing the previous world record of 2:11.96 that had been held by fellow Kenyan Noah Ngeny since 1999.
Wanyonyi stayed tucked behind the pacemakers early in the race, with the first guiding the field through 400m in 50.95, exactly on world-record pace.
The second pacemaker then took the athletes through 800m in 1:45.11 before stepping aside, leaving Wanyonyi to surge clear over the closing stages as 2022 world 1500m champion Jake Wightman gave chase.
The Kenyan crossed the finish line in a world-record time of 2:11.83, subject to the usual ratification procedures by World Athletics.
Wightman finished second in 2:12.77 to climb to fifth on the all-time rankings, while world and Olympic medallist Djamel Sedjati came home third in 2:13.94. The top six athletes all recorded times below 2:15.
The 1000m is not part of the Olympic Games or World Championships programme and is only raced on limited occasions.
The 21-year-old is also tied as the second-fastest 800m runner in history, one of athletics' premier middle-distance events.
The 800m world record remains in the hands of Kenya's David Rudisha, who ran 1:40.91 during the 2012 Olympic Games final. Denmark's Wilson Kipketer and Wanyonyi share second place on the all-time list with identical times of 1:41.11.
The world record caps off an impressive 2026 season for the Kenyan. Wanyonyi began his campaign by moving up to the 1,500m at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, producing a dominant front-running display to win in 3:34.11 ahead of world bronze medallist Reynold Cheruiyot.
He then switched back to his specialist 800m on the Diamond League circuit, finishing second in Rabat after posting 1:43.56 behind Britain's Max Burgin.
Another narrow runner-up finish followed in Oslo, where American Cooper Lutkenhaus beat him by the slimmest of margins, winning in 1:42.08 to Wanyonyi's 1:42.09.
His long-awaited Diamond League breakthrough came in Monaco, albeit over the rarely contested 1000m, where he not only claimed victory but also shattered one of the oldest world records in men's middle-distance athletics.
