Norwegian 18-year-old beats new world record-holder Samuel Tefera and breaks world indoor U20 best with 3:36 in Germany

Going up against the new world indoor record-holder clearly didn’t faze Jakob Ingebrigtsen as just four days after Samuel Tefera’s historic 1500m in Birmingham, it was the Norwegian 18-year-old who stole the spotlight by out-kicking the Ethiopian and storming to success in Dusseldorf.

Clocking 3:36.02 after surging off the final bend, Ingebrigtsen broke the world indoor under-20 record as well as the senior Norwegian national mark, staying true to the new tattoo of the word ‘fast’ he later revealed as having been added to his left bicep.

After running 3:31.04 on Saturday, 19-year-old Tefera was handed his first indoor defeat but by securing second place in 3:36.34 he had the consolation of winning the overall IAAF World Indoor Tour title, with the PSD Bank Meeting the final event in the 2019 series.

“When I saw that Tefera was in range it was really motivating to run a bit faster,” double European champion Ingebrigtsen told the IAAF.

Asked about the new tattoo on his arm, which he had done over the winter, he added: “I have a goal to be really fast in the 1500m and this tattoo reminds me of that every day.”

Tefera had tracked the pacemakers through 400m in 56.14 and 800m in 1:54.44 before clocking 2:53.45 at the 1200m mark.

But Ingebrigtsen, who had run a world indoor under-20 record of 3:36.21 in Norway earlier in the month, started to close the gap and made a move off the final bend to deny Tefera another victory.

The winner’s older brother Filip was third in a PB of 3:38.62.

While Tefera is still a teenager, athletes in the under-20 age-group have to be born in 2000 or later to be classed as juniors in 2019 so his mark is not a under-20 record as he was born in 1999.

It proved to be a long night for the 60m hurdles finalists as they had to wait until the end of the meeting to race after a series of false starts and an appeal caused a delay.

Jarret Eaton was disqualified from the first heat after he started too soon and it looked as though Orlando Ortega in the second heat might also face the same fate but he was allowed to race and went on to win the final, clocking 7.52 as Milan Trajkovic matched that time in second.

Making his return after injury and looking to prove his fitness ahead of the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Britain’s world and defending European indoor champion Andrew Pozzi clocked 7.70 in his heat and then 7.67 for fifth in the final.

Eaton did still secure the series win.

Habitam Alemu won the 800m for the overall World Indoor Tour title as she clocked 2:00.70 ahead of Shelayna Oskan-Clarke with 2:02.25. Lynsey Sharp was sixth in 2:03.07.

Multiple world silver medallist Marie-Josée Ta Lou ran a world-leading meeting record and PB of 7.02 to win the 60m as Ewa Swoboda was second in 7.10 and Dafne Schippers third in 7.19. Imani-Lara Lansiquot finished fourth in 7.24.

The men’s 60m was won by Su Bingtian in 6.49, while Nathan Strother claimed 400m victory and the series title after his 46.48 run.

Christina Schwanitz secured the World Indoor Tour shot put title after her winning throw of 19.14m, while Sophie McKinna finished a fine fourth with 17.94m for a mark just 3cm off her recently-set PB.

Anzhelika Sidorova and Yulimar Rojas also became series winners as they respectively cleared a meeting record of 4.77m in the pole vault and leapt 14.46m in the triple jump.

Naoto Tobe and Yu Wang both cleared 2.34m in the high jump, with Tobe claiming the overall World Indoor Tour title after getting the win on countback.

Full results can be found here.

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