Mills beats Farah's British record at Oslo Diamond League

BBC News

21 hours ago

George Mills set a British record in the men's 5,000m as he finished fourth in a lightning-fast race at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.Mills, 26, led at the bell but was passed in the final 400m as Nico Young of the United States came through to win in a personal best of 12 minutes 45.27 seconds.Mills clocked 12:46.59 to beat Sir Mo Farah's previous British best of 12:53.11 which had stood since 2011.In doing so, Mills took 12 seconds off his own personal best.The race was seen as an assault on the world record, and while the field were ultimately 10 seconds off the mark set by Joshua Cheptegei in 2020, Young's time was the second best this year, with even 10th-placed Dominic Lobalu setting a Swiss record.Mills said of his own record run: "The national record was definitely one of the things I came for."The race was stacked and billed as a world record attempt, so to be in the mix was important. My target for the season is a global medal and this shows I am in the right space."
Warholm thrills home crowd
Britain's Dina Asher-Smith was third in the women's 100m, behind Olympic champion Julien Alfred and veteran Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith.Asher-Smith failed to make the 100m final at last year's Olympics but is hopeful of better at this year's World Championships in Tokyo in September.She said after running a season's best 11.08 seconds: "I feel great - I have been training really well and I'm healthy so I'm really happy to be here."I plan to run faster and this year is obviously all about the World Championships in Tokyo - the aim of course is to make the 100m and 200m finals, and I do believe I can run really well and get into the medals."Alfred looked smooth in her first 100m of the year, clocking 10.89, and could be the one to beat again in Japan.She said: "It was my first race of the season, so I was a little rusty, but I got the win under my belt, which is the main thing."I am Olympic champion, so I am the one to beat, but I really want to add world champion to my name."Swedish pole vault star Armand Duplantis easily won again, clearing 6.15m but for once not troubling a world record, while there was a record of sorts for the crowd to celebrate in the final event.Karsten Warholm, who trains on the Oslo track, won the rarely run 300m hurdles in a world record of 32.67 seconds.The event's famous 'Dream Mile', won in the past by greats such as Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, this time went to Portugal's Isaac Nader in 3:48.25, with Britain's Elliot Giles setting a personal best of 3:49.16 in seventh.