• Double world champion runs over one mile on Tuesday 13^th July
• Dutch middle-distance athlete holds world record for the distance
• Gateshead stages its second Wanda Diamond League event of 2021

Sifan Hassan, the reigning world champion at 1500m and 10,000m, will run the one mile at the Müller British Grand Prix on 13^th July at Gateshead International Stadium.

The 28-year-old from the Netherlands holds the world mile record with 4:12.33 and last weekend set a world record for 10,000m with 29:06.82, although it survived only two days before being beaten by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia.

Hassan said: “I’ve raced several times in the past at events in the UK – at the Anniversary Games in London, meetings in Birmingham and Glasgow and of course the 2017 World Championships and 2018 World Indoor Championships. There is always a warm welcome, a great atmosphere and the fans have good knowledge of the sport.

“Running over one mile in Gateshead on 13^th July gives me a chance to test my speed ahead of the Olympic Games. Maybe I can run a good time too although much will depend on the weather. Hopefully it will be warmer and drier than it was for the Diamond League in Gateshead last month!”

At the last World Championships in Doha in 2019, Hassan beat Gidey to the 10,000m title before returning seven days later to claim 1500m gold in a fast 3:51.95. Earlier that year the Dutch runner had set a world mile record in Monaco, too, as she beat Svetlana Masterkova’s long-standing global best.

In Gateshead next month she will again tackle the classic distance of the mile and she is clearly in form to challenge her world record if conditions are good. In addition to her 10,000m world record in Hengelo last Sunday, she beat Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya and European champion Laura Muir of Britain over 1500m at the Diamond League in Florence on Thursday night in 3:53.63.

Hassan was born in Ethiopia but moved to the Netherlands as a refugee aged 15. She first made her mark internationally when winning the European under-23 cross-country title in 2013 and since then has developed into one of the world’s top endurance runners with incredible ability that ranges from 1:56.81 for 800m through to a European half-marathon record of 65:15. What’s more, she holds world records for the one-hour run with 18,930m and women’s only 5km of 14:44, plus European records at 1500m, 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m.

After successfully welcoming back 2,000 spectators at the Müller Grand Prix Gateshead last weekend (23rd May), British Athletics are hopeful more fans will be able to safely return to the stadium for the Müller British Grand Prix on 13th July.

Ticket information will be available soon.