On Sunday 7 July, one of the longest standing world records in athletics celebrated its silver anniversary – it will be 25 years since Hicham El Guerrouj ran a mile in 3:43.40.
To this day, only five men have come within three seconds of that record time, and it has withstood all attempts to consign it to history over the last quarter-century.
El Guerrouj set his record at the Olympic Stadium in Rome on a Mondo athletics track (recently renovated with a new Mondo athletics track to host the European athletics championships, read here), reducing the previous mark of 3:44.39 by Algeria’s Noureddine Morceli from 1993 – which was also achieved on a Mondo track in the Italian town of Rieti in 1993 – by more than a second.
El Guerrouj’s race in the Italian capital also remains one of the most well-remembered head-to-head middle-distance duels outside of a major championship.
Kenyan pacemaker Robert Kibet went through 440 yards in 55.07, just fractionally outside the opening lap in Morceli’s record run but speeded up on the second lap to reach 880 yards in 1:51.58, a full second inside the time required to go into new territory.
Kibet’s compatriot and 1992 Olympic 800m champion William Tanui went to the front at the start of the third lap before El Guerrouj took the lead just before the bell, clocking 2:47.91to be two seconds inside Morceli’s equivalent split with one lap to go.
“From then, El Guerrouj was out on his own in front, with [Kenya’s Noah] Ngeny a stride or two behind. For much of the last lap it looked as though Ngeny, would fall off El Guerrouj's blistering pace. He often teetered a metre or so behind, stretching to the limit the imaginary elastic that was attaching him to the Moroccan. But into the home straight he pulled out and attacked,” wrote the British publication Athletics Weekly in its report on the race.
“El Guerrouj grimaced and tried to kick again desperate to
win, let alone break a world record. He held on, as Ngeny did not quite have the strength to claw his way past. It took a final 400m of 55.22 from El Guerrouj and he took his place in the record books,” added the magazine.
It is worth noting that Ngeny, who was to go on and beat El Guerrouj and win the Olympic Games Sydney 2000 1500m title - always on a Mondo atheltics track - finished second in 3:43.40 which remains unbeaten by anyone other than his great Moroccan rival.
"I have not been running recently because I had a knee injury and my uncle died," El Guerrouj reflected after the race. "My family will be lifted by what I have done.
“I lost concentration after 800 metres, but I got it back and, with 300 to go, I saw Ngeny behind me when I looked at the big screen. I thought the most important thing was to win, not the time."
Nevertheless, the time remains the benchmark of greatness for the mile.