Melissa Courtney-Bryant Smashes Second Welsh Athletics Record In A Week In Historic Race

By Hannah Blackwell

Melissa Courtney-Bryant has smashed a second Welsh athletics record inside a week.

Five days after breaking the Welsh women’s 1500m mark with a new sub-four minute run of 3:58.01, the Wales Commonwealth Games star broke the mile record at the Monaco Diamond League on Friday night.

In, arguably, the greatest female mile race in history – a race in which the world record was shattered by almost five seconds – Courtney-Bryant finished seventh in a Welsh record time of 4:16.38.

That broke the old Welsh record of 4:19.41 set by Kirsty McDermott in Oslo back in 1985.

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Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon shattered the world when she completed the race in four minutes, 7.64 seconds to smash Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan’s 2019 mark of 4:12.33.

It continued an amazing season for Kipyegon, the multiple Olympic and world 1500m champion, who set a new 1500m world record in Florence in June, and a new 5000m record in Paris nine days later.

Laura Muir smashed Zola Budd’s 38-year-old British women’s mile record.

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Muir finished fourth in a race of extraordinary quality, her personal-best time of 4:15.24 eclipsing Budd’s mark, set at the Zurich Weltklasse meeting, by over two seconds.

The Republic of Ireland’s Ciara Mageean broke Sonia O’Sullivan’s long-standing national record with 4:14.58 in second ahead of Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu in an event where, of the runners who finished the race, only third-placed Hailu failed to record a personal best time.

Jessica Hull set an Australian record in fifth and Nikki Hiltz of the United States set a North American best in sixth ahead of a the new personal best set by Courtney-Bryant.

“I have done good training so far and I just came for it,” Kipyegon said.

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“The time – yes, it was really good because the race was well planned. It just went smoothly and to accomplish the world record – that is amazing.”

Elsewhere, British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith set a season’s best of 22.23 as she finished third in an encouraging women’s 200m behind Jamaica’s world champion Shericka Jackson, who claimed her fourth win from four this year in a time of 21.86.