This Day in Running- February 20th

2004- Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia set a Indoor World Record in the 5000m of 12:49.60.  He set this record at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham, England winning the race by 22 seconds.



1997- Haile Gebrselassie also set the Indoor World Record at 5000m running 12:59.04.  He was also the first man to go under 13 minutes indoors.



These two men are the top-two distance runners ever in the world.  Both have had recent struggles as a new wave of mostly Kenyan men take over the world stage but these two will be forever known as dominant and revolutionary.

2000- Wilson Kipketer of Denmark set the Indoor World Record in the 1000m.  He ran a time of 2:14.96. Wilson holds many mid-distance records.  Rob Druppers of the Netherlands set the same record in 1988 with a time of 2:16.40.

Kipketer in Athens, 2004

1981- Eamonn Coghlan of Ireland ran 3:50.6 to set the Indoor World Record in the Mile Run.  He edged Steve Scott of the United States by just over 1 second.  Coghlan later bested his record and his times still remain 2nd and 4th on the All-Time list.



Also 1981- Carl Lewis set the first of his World Indoor records with a Long Jump of 8.49m.  He later broke this record numerous times.