Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega’s was on another class when he set the world U20 record at the Brussels Diamond League that was held on Friday night at the at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.
The 18 year-old broke away from compatriots Hagos Gebrhiwet and Yomif Kejelcha with 250 metres to go, surging ahead to cross the line in 12:43.02 to become the fourth fastest ever over the distance, trailing just Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie and Daniel Komen whose performances were all world records. For his part, Barega knocked more than four seconds from the previous world U20 mark of 12:47.53 that was set in 2012 by his fellow country-mate Gebrhiwet in Paris.
“I came for the win and was not at all thinking about a time, but in some way everything came together,” said Barega, whose previous best was 12:55.58.
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