Double European under-23 champion beats Laura Muir to smash Jenny Meadows’ UK mark with 1:57.91

Jemma Reekie stormed into 2020 in style as she smashed the British indoor 800m record during an invitation women’s 800m race at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena on Saturday.

Not only did her winning time of 1:57.91 improve on Jenny Meadows’ 10-year-old UK mark of 1:58.43 but it also saw the 21-year-old beat her training partner Laura Muir, as the four-time European indoor gold medallist clocked 1:58.44 in second.

European fourth-placer Adelle Tracey was third in an indoor PB of 2:00.23 and Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford finished fourth in an indoor personal best of 2:00.96.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Reekie wrote on social media. “Thank you for all the lovely messages. I need to process this.”

Meadows was among those to comment and said: “Just finished work and my Twitter feed is going crazy. Took a look and seems there was one hell of a race in Glasgow where Jemma Reekie has broken my British 800m indoor record and Laura Muir just missed it. That’s amazing girls, can’t wait to hear more about it from you both.”

Muir had been ahead at the bell as Reekie moved on to the shoulder of Tracey. But Reekie surged ahead and moved past her fellow Andy Young-coached Scot Muir down the back straight and went on to claim a clear win in a time which takes more than five seconds off her previous indoor best and improves on her outdoor PB of 2:01.45 set last June.

It is the fastest 800m indoor time run by a woman since 2006 and also improves on Muir’s Scottish record of 1:59.50 set last year.

British record for @JemmaReekie in Glasgow! She breaks @JennyMeadows800’s UK indoor 800m best of 1:58.43 from 2010 with 1:57.91 to beat @lauramuiruns with 1:58.44! @scotathletics https://t.co/P7sZWJJaM1

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 1, 2020

Reekie was not the only British record-breaker on Saturday, however, as Keely Hodgkinson clocked 2:01.16 to break the European under-20 800m indoor mark when winning in Vienna.

That time is just 0.13 off the world under-20 indoor record.

Also in Vienna, GB’s Tom Keen clocked 3:41.44 for 1500m to improve on the UK under-20 indoor record which had been held by former AW employee Matt McLaughlin since 2013.

Jake Heyward and David Sharpe were also past holders of the record.