The 31-year-old goes No.2 on the UK all-time rankings with 30:19.02 as she races away from Ethiopia’s finest in their world champs trial

It is 20 years since Paula Radcliffe ran her British record of 30:01.09. At the height of her powers at the European Championships in 2002, she raced away from her rivals in pouring rain in Munich’s Olympic Stadium to produce one of the most stunning British endurance performances of the modern era. Such was her dominance, the great Sonia O’Sullivan ran an Irish record but finished 46 seconds behind.

Since then the record has been untouchable. Jo Pavey has come the closest over the years but her best of 30:53.20 from the London Olympics in 2012 would still have left her around three-quarters of a lap behind Radcliffe at her best.

Now, though, an athlete has emerged who is capable of threatening the mark. Eilish McColgan has improved steadily in recent years and during 2022 has hit a rich seam of form that has, so far, seen her break UK records at 5km and 10km plus the half-marathon on the roads.

Last year the Scottish runner broke Radcliffe’s similarly long-standing UK 5000m record with 14:28.55 in Oslo and here at the FBK Games in Hengelo on Monday (June 6) – a meeting which is part of the Continental Tour Gold series – she had a crack at Radcliffe’s 10,000m mark.

Ultimately she finished 18 seconds adrift of the mark with a Scottish record of 30:19.02 but during a remarkable solo effort without any pacemakers she hit halfway bang on pace with 15:00.75 before fading slightly in breezy conditions in the second half.

Impressively she also won the race and left most of Ethiopia’s best runners, including world record-holder Letesenbet Gidey, a long way adrift. The race incorporated the Ethiopian trial for the World Championships and with 3000m to go the leading Ethiopians were 45 seconds behind McColgan.

At the finish the trials winner, Gidey, had narrowed that gap but she was still 25 seconds behind the Briton with a time of 30:44.27 as she out-kicked fellow Ethiopian Ejgayehu Taye and Margaret Kipkemboi of Kenya with more Ethiopians – Bosena Mulate and Girmawit Gebrzihair – fifth and sixth.

In seventh, 2016 Olympic champion and former world record-holder Almaz Ayana ran 30:48.48 and in eighth was world 10km road record-holder Yalemzerf Yehualaw with 30:54.28.

Showing the same bold running tactics as her mother, Liz, displayed in the past, McColgan knocked out a series of 71-72sec laps like a metronome before slowing slightly to 73-74sec and the occasional 75sec in the second half of the race, even lapping some of the slower runners as she entered the final 2000m. She closed with a 67.68 but by that stage she had too much to do to beat Radcliffe’s record. Still, she goes No.2 all-time on the UK rankings and will surely come closer in a more competitive race with pacemakers.

“I’m in good shape,” said McColgan. “I was leading from the start and had to make a switch mentally, because I expected that the Ethiopian girls would have come along. I really want to break the national record. But overall I’m happy with the result.”

Big javelin marks in the field

The meeting began with rainy conditions and cool temperatures. But similar to the winds at the Diamond League in Doha that helped javelin thrower Anderson Peters break 90 metres last month, the weather again here suited the throwers and the world champion from Grenada threw a meeting record 90.75m in a high quality competition that also saw Julian Weber of Germany throw 89.54m and Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad & Tobago 89.07m.

“It feels good to throw over 90 metres,” said Peters. “My hands were so cold that I had no feeling in it the first throw. Normally I like to throw my best throw the first attempt.”

Femke Bol delighted her home crowd with a comfortable victory in the women’s 400m hurdles in 53.94, winning by nearly two seconds from Anna Ryzhykova with Britain’s Jessie Knight clocking 55.81 in third and Lina Nielsen 56.85 in fifth.

“There is so much atmosphere here,” said Bol, who races again at the Diamond League in Rome later this week. “It was my first 400m hurdles race this season so that is always a little bit scary and for a home crowd you want to execute and show the best of yourself.”

Olympic bronze 400m hurdles medallist Femke Bol opens up her 2022 season over the distance with 53.94 at @FBKGamesHengelo ??#ContinentalTourGold pic.twitter.com/iuBBLfweV7

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) June 6, 2022

British sprint win for Neita

Daryll Neita took the women’s 100m with 11.19 (0.8) from Bahamian Tynier Gaither’s 11.23 as Neita’s GB team-mate Imani Lansiquot was third with 11.26 and the returning Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands – the world 200m champion in 2015 and 2017 – was fifth in 11.40.

“The showers during warm-up made it a bit difficult, but I felt good,” said Neita. “I felt confident and I wanted to race because it’s a good field here. My next races are Turku and Paris.”

Another former world sprints champion, Yohan Blake, was in winning form though as the Jamaican took the men’s 100m in 10.11 (-0.3). Behind, Jeremiah Azu was the best of the Brits with 10.28 in fourth as Harry Aikines-Aryeetey clocked 10.52 and Tommy Ramdhan 10.60.

Duplantis over six metres

Mondo Duplantis was in action with a pole vault victory with 6.01m as Britain’s Harry Coppell cleared 5.50m.

World and Olympic long jump champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany leapt 6.65m (1.6) to take the win as Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers jumped 6.31m (1.7).

In the women’s shot put Chase Ealey of the United States threw a world lead of 19.98m to win as Britain’s Sophie McKinna threw 17.18m.

Kumari Taki of Kenya won the men’s 1500m in 3:34.77 as British trio George Mills (3:36.92), Elliot Giles (3:37.48) and Archie Davis (3:40.11) finished fifth, eighth and tenth respectively.

Roxana Gomez of Cuba won the women’s 400m in 51.18 while Britain’s Nicole Yeargin was third in 51.56.

The men’s 400m hurdles, meanwhile, saw in-form Brit Alastair Chalmers fall after he hit a barrier coming into the home straight. He was one of three athletes who failed to finish as Julien Watrin of Belgium won in 49.17.

Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon tested her speed at 800m, too, winning in 2:00.36 as Britain’s Ellie Baker was fourth in 2:02.47.

The previous evening (June 5) in Hengelo, the Ethiopian men’s 10,000m world trial was held with Selemon Barega winning by just over a second in 26:44.73 from Tadese Worku, Berihu Aregawi and Yomif Kejelcha.