A British best by Laura Muir, European record by Jakob Ingebrigtsen and near world records by Grant Holloway and Getnet Wale on an historic evening of action

Tuesday evening’s Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais had been billed as the stand-out event of the season so far and it will go down as one of the best in history, with a series of storming performances in Liévin capped by Gudaf Tsegay’s world indoor 1500m record of 3:53.09.

By the time world bronze medallist Tsegay took to the track, there had already been a near world indoor 3000m record by Getnet Wale and a European indoor 1500m record by Jakob Ingebrigtsen, while Laura Muir’s time in second behind Tsegay broke the British indoor record and Grant Holloway rounded out the evening by missing the world 60m hurdles record by just 0.02.

In the women’s 1500m, Ethiopia’s Tsegay took more than two seconds off the world indoor record set by Genzebe Dibaba in 2014, managing to hold on after being paced through some fast early laps.

Following the pacemaker through 400m in 58.97 and then passing 800m in 2:05.94, the 24-year-old had already created a significant gap on the rest of the field. She went through 1000m in 2:37.36, with European champion Muir running solo behind her.

Gritting her teeth, Tsegay stormed over the finish line with the clock reading 3:53.09 before she erupted into celebrations.

Gudaf Tsegay destroys world indoor 1500m record by two seconds at @Meeting_Lievin #WorldIndoorTour pic.twitter.com/vQpEoecLYt

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) February 9, 2021

Behind her, Muir broke her training partner Jemma Reekie’s British indoor record with 3:59.58, while their fellow Briton Melissa Courtney-Bryant finished third in 4:04.79.

Reekie was also in action in Liévin and won the earlier 800m A race in 2:00.64, beating Habitam Alemu (2:00.86), Hedda Hynne (2:00.92) and world U20 indoor record-holder Keely Hodgkinson (2:01.71), with Britain’s Hodgkinson fresh from her 1:59.03 record run in Vienna.

A dominant race by their fellow Briton Elliot Giles in Liévin saw the European medallist clock 1:45.49 after a fast start to win by more than a second.

The men’s 1500m race also saw the record book rewritten as Norway’s 20-year-old double European champion Ingebrigtsen dominated to win in 3:31.80 and improve the continental mark. His time moves him to fifth on the world indoor all-time list behind only Samuel Tefera (3:31.04), Hicham El Guerrouj, Yomif Kejelcha and Haile Gebrselassie.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen clocks world-leading 3:31.80 @Meeting_Lievin record and the fifth fastest 1500m indoors time in history.

? Watch #WorldIndoorTour live: https://t.co/WixGBYbXJI pic.twitter.com/41uPDUvh7Y

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) February 9, 2021

Destroying a top-class field, Ingebrigtsen won by five seconds and world medallist Marcin Lewandowski claimed the runner-up spot in 3:36.83. Andrew Coscoran ran 3:37.20 to finish fifth and also move to fifth on the Irish indoor all-time list. World indoor 3000m medallist Bethwell Birgen was 10th in 3:39.27, while Tefera was 11th in 3:39.27 and the winner’s older brother Filip was 12th in 3:40.09.

The world record was also threatened in the men’s 3000m as steeplechase specialist Wale missed Daniel Komen’s 1998 global mark by just 0.08 with his run of 7:24.98.

Prior to the race, a total of six athletes had bettered 7:30 for 3000m indoors. That club now has four more members as behind Wale, who ran a roughly 1:54 last 800m off a fast pace, there was a time of 7:26.10 by Selemon Barega, 7:27.98 by Lemecha Girma and 7:29.24 by Berihu Aregawi.

The fast times kept on coming and the final race of the evening saw Holloway come close to Colin Jackson’s world 60m hurdles record as he clocked 7.32 to move to second on the world all-time list, improving his own US record of 7.35. He had run 7.38 in his heat.

Wilhem Belocian was second in 7.52.

World champion @Flaamingoo_ clocks area record 7.32 and goes #2 all-time in the 60m hurdles at @Meeting_Lievin #WorldIndoorTour pic.twitter.com/fupblnh72y

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) February 9, 2021

A close women’s race was won by Nadine Visser as she, Christina Clemons and Nooralotta Neziri all ran 7.91.

Marcell Jacobs ran 6.54 to win the men’s 60m, matching his PB time from the heats, while the women’s event was won by Javianne Oliver in 7.10.

The head-to-head between double world champion Sifan Hassan and world steeplechase record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech didn’t materialise in the women’s 3000m as 19-year-old Lemlem Hailu, the 2017 world under-18 champion, surged away on the final lap and won in a meeting record of 8:32.55 ahead of Hassan’s 8:33.62 and Chepkoech’s 8:34.21.

Winfred Mutile Yavi set a world best in the rarely-run indoor 2000m steeplechase, clocking 5:45.09.

In the field events, the spotlight had been on the men’s pole vault as it featured five six-metre-plus vaulters, including world record-holder Mondo Duplantis, fresh from his 6.03m clearance in Rouen.

But they didn’t hit such heights this time, with Duplantis winning the competition on countback thanks to his 5.86m clearance before retiring from the competition as a precaution with a reported hamstring niggle.

Chris Nilsen cleared the same height to finish second as former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie was third with 5.80m, world bronze medallist Piotr Lisek fourth with 5.74m, Olympic champion Thiago Braz joint fifth with 5.60m and two-time world champion Sam Kendricks joint seventh, also with 5.60m.

British record-holder Holly Bradshaw, who cleared 4.85m in Rouen, won the women’s competition with a 4.73m vault as Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi was second with 4.63m.

World indoor champion Juan Miguel Echevarria improved the world long jump lead to 8.25m in the final round of the competition, winning ahead of Miltiadis Tentoglou who had earlier equalled the world lead with 8.21m.

Over in the triple jump, world indoor record-holder Hugues Fabrice Zango found his rhythm after three fouls and leapt 17.82m in the fifth round to win the competition.

World leader Auriol Dongmo was the evening’s first winner as she claimed shot put victory with a throw of 19.18m.