Sebastian Coe insists he is “delighted” for Elliot Giles after seeing his 800m indoor record smashed in Torun, Poland.
Giles ran a staggering 1 minute 43.63 seconds, topping Coe’s record, which has stood since 1982, as well as posting the second-fastest indoor time of all time.
With only Wilson Kipketer, who ran 1 minute 42.67 seconds in 1997, faster, Giles admitted his accomplishment was still a “blur”.
“I’m still trying to process what even just happened,” said Giles. “It really does feel like a blur. I can’t believe I just ran 1:43 indoors. I’m so overwhelmed by it all.”
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Giles appeared to be sporting the Nike Air Zoom Victory, with the controversial spikes attributed as a reason for a number of records tumbling in recent weeks.
The technology is the latest example of the sports manufacturers influencing the sport, after the success of Nike’s Air Zoom Alphafly Next%.
Coe responded to Giles’ new record by revealing he is “absolutely delighted” to be slowly erased from the history books.
“I’m slowly being expunged from history which is a good thing, It shows that we’re making progress and I’m absolutely delighted for Elliot. That was a great run,” Coe told the Guardian.
“We really do have an exciting crop of 800m runners coming through. There was a real dearth of talent but this shows that Britain has got a crop of really exciting middle distance runners again.”
Giles will be competing against highly-rated Americans Donavan Brazier and Bryce Hoppel in the 800m at the Tokyo Olympics, with both athletes impressing already this year..
Brazier, the 2019 world champion and also sponsored by Nike, clocked 1 minute 44.21 seconds in New York this month, beating his own US indoor record.
While Hoppel, who is sponsored by adidas and finished fourth in Doha in 2019, set a US record in the 1,000m and a 2021 lead at 2:16.27.
