3000 m, men

What to remember

Seven and a half laps of a 400 m track: on August 25, 2024, at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzów, Poland, Jakob Ingebrigtsen covered them in 7 min 17.55 s, an average of 24.683 km/h. That works out at 58.34 seconds per 400 m, closer to the 60.43 seconds of the 5000 m record than to the 55.46 seconds of the mile record.

It is debated whether the 3000 m is a middle-distance or a long-distance event. The pace resembles the 5000 m, yet the race also demands a high tolerance to lactic acid, as the mile does. Indoors, the distance is 15 laps of a 200 m track.

In 1918, the record was 8 min 33.2 s, by John Zander. It then passed through Paavo Nurmi (1926), Gaston Reiff (7 min 58.8 s in 1949), Kipchoge Keino (7 min 39.6 s in 1965), Saïd Aouita (7 min 29.45 s in 1989) and Daniel Komen (7 min 20.67 s in 1996). Over 106 years the time came down by 14.7%.