Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands and Julien Wanders from Switzerland set world 5km records in the Herculis 5km in Monaco on Sunday (17) morning.
Making her season’s debut, Hassan broke the tape in 14:44, bettering both the pending women’s-only race world record of 15:48 and the pending mixed race standard of 14:48.
Hassan hasn’t raced since the Copenhagen Half Marathon in September when she surpassed all expectations - including hers - to break the European record with 65:15. Illness forced her to miss the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in December but she is aiming to compete at the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus on 30 March.
“I did European Cross Country a couple of times and I really like it so this year I’m excited to do World Cross Country,’’ she said.
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Nine days after breaking Mo Farah’s European half marathon record with 59:13 in the Ras Al Khaimah, Wanders eclipsed the world 5km record with 13:29 to shave one second off the previous mark.
Wanders has broken records at 5km, 10km and half marathon in recent months but the Kenyan-based Swiss will now be looking to convert this rich vein of form onto the track in 2019 with the IAAF World Championships in Doha his main focus.
“I think I’m done with road racing until later in November. We focus on the track and I hope to do well in Doha over 5000m and 10,000m,” he said.
On the comeback from injury, Sondre Nordstad Moen from Norway finished second in 13:38 in his first race since dropping out of the marathon at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships.
The 5km road distance was introduced as a world record event in November 2017, with the inaugural record to be recognised after 1 January 2018 if the performances were equal to or better than 13:10 for men and 14:45 for women. If no such performances were achieved in 2018, the best performances of 2018 would be recognised on 1 January 2019.
The pending inaugural records - 13:30 by Bernard Kimeli on the men's side and 14:48 by Caroline Kipkirui in the women's for a mixed race - were set en route at the Birell Prague Grand Prix 10km on 8 September.