Mills beats Farah’s UK record at Oslo Diamond League

BBC Online :

George Mills set a UK record in the men’s 5,000m as he finished fourth in a lightning-fast race at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo on Thursday.

Mills, 26, led at the bell but was passed in the final 400m as Nico Young of the United States came through to win in a personal best of 12 minutes 45.27 seconds.

Mills clocked 12:46.59 to beat Sir Mo Farah’s previous UK best of 12:53.11 which had stood since 2011.

In doing so, Mills took 12 seconds off his own personal best.
The race was seen as an assault on the world record, and while the field were ultimately 10 seconds off the mark set by Joshua Cheptegei in 2020, Young’s time was the second best this year, with even 10th-placed Dominic Lobalu setting a Swiss record.

Mills said of his own record run: “The national record was definitely one of the things I came for.
“The race was stacked and billed as a world record attempt, so to be in the mix was important. My target for the season is a global medal and this shows I am in the right space.”

Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith was third in the women’s 100m, behind Olympic champion Julien Alfred and veteran Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith.

Asher-Smith failed to make the 100m final at last year’s Olympics but is hopeful of better at this year’s World Championships in Tokyo in September.

She said after running a season’s best 11.08 seconds: “I feel great – I have been training really well and I’m healthy so I’m really happy to be here.”