Another victory for Laura Muir as fellow Brit Laura Weightman runs a PB in same race at the ISTAF meeting in Germany

Laura Muir ran a world lead of 3:57.40 at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin as she won another international 1500m in emphatic style. It was one of several world leading marks set in the German capital on Sunday (Sept 13) and came in a race that also saw runner-up Laura Weightman improve her six-year-old PB to 4:00.09.

“I had a lot of confidence, I love this stadium,” said Muir after clocking her third sub-four-minute 1500m of recent weeks in this coronavirus-condensed season.

“Two years ago I won the European Championships here. So I wanted to come back and run fast.”

Fab race in Berlin tonight ?
World Lead for me and a PB for @LauraWeightman ? pic.twitter.com/LsIlwQIxAt

— Laura Muir (@lauramuiruns) September 13, 2020

Muir added: “We had the lockdown in Scotland for quite a long time and it was hard. We tried the best we could do and being middle-distance runners we could still train. So we tried to get a good base and as much consistency as possible.”

She continued: “I have one more race at a Diamond League meeting in Rome, then my season will be over.”

Behind the two Lauras, Australian Jessica Hull ran an Oceania record 4:00.42 while Melissa Courtney-Bryant was fourth in 4:02.34.

In the triple jump, Christian Taylor recorded a world lead of 17.57m (-0.8) in the final round to overtake local hope Max Hess, who had led in the penultimate round with 17.07m.

Taylor (pictured below) later said it was a privilege to compete in the city where Jesse Owens made a name for himself in 1936 just one day after the Olympic legend’s birthday.

Karsten Warholm won again by a big margin in a fast time – 47.08. The Norwegian was short of the world record but took nine hundredths of a second off Ed Moses’ long-standing meeting record. Britain’s Chris McAlister ran 51.03 in sixth.

“I love this stadium and I felt like I did one of my best races,” said Warholm. “I think this is my third best time ever so I am really happy about that. So posting these times now, eventually even greater times will come.”

A further world lead came from Hyvin Kiyeng of Kenya with 9:06.14 to win the women’s 3000m steeplechase from world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech’s 9:10.07.

British runners ran well, too, with Aimee Pratt (pictured below) fourth in 9:32.50 and Rosie Clarke just behind with 9:32.95 – just outside their PBs – as Elizabeth Bird also ran 9:55.21.

Elsewhere, Johannes Vetter won the javelin on home soil with 87.26m. But fellow German star Malaika Mihambo did not have the same success in the long jump as her 6.77m best was beaten by Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, the Ukrainian jumping 6.87m (-0.3).

In third, Jazmin Sawyers jumped 6.67m (0.7) with fellow Brit Abigail Irozuru 6.54m (0.1) in fifth.

Mondo Duplantis took the pole vault victory with 5.91m after having unsuccessfully tried 6.15m. British record-holder Harry Coppell cleared 5.42m but failed at 5.57m. In an anticlimactic contest, Piotr Lisek managed just 5.82m and Sam Kendricks an underpar 5.57m.

In the 100m races, Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers won the women’s race in 11.26 (0.1) as Britain’s Kristal Awuah was just outside her season’s best with 11.44 in third. Arthur Cisse of the Ivory Coast took the men’s short sprint in 10.10 (0.4) with Britain’s Ojie Edoburun sixth in 10.60.

There was a rare loss for discus thrower Daniel Stahl, too, as his 65.89m is beaten by Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania’s 66.72m.

Results can be found here.