Mohammed Aman winning the 800m at the 2013 IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels (© Jean-Pierre Durand / IAAF)
World 800m champion Mohammed Aman has set world youth bests and world junior records, but he now wants to replicate that feat as a senior and has targeted the 1000m world record at the Golden Spike IAAF World Challenge meeting in Ostrava on 17 June.
Competing in his first year as a senior athlete, Aman recently won his second successive world indoor title over his specialist distance, extending his winning streak which dates back to May last year.
Little more than three weeks after winning the world title in Moscow, Aman ended 2013 by setting his sixth Ethiopian 800m record in Brussels with a clocking of 1:42.37.
With no global outdoor championships in 2014, his focus for this summer is simply to run fast.
“I have been asking my management team to find a good venue for me to make a serious attempt on the 1000m world record,” said Aman. “When they informed me about Ostrava, I was very excited to hear this news.
“Given it is a non-Olympic year, we are happy to focus on this challenge. After my great experience competing in Ostrava last year, I feel this is the best venue to host my world record attempt. I look forward to returning to Ostrava to put my name in the record books.”
The current 1000m world record has stood to Noah Ngeny since 1999. The Kenyan, who went on to win the Olympic 1500m title one year later, clocked 2:11.96 in Rieti to improve on the 2:12.18 mark that had been set by Sebastian Coe 18 years prior.
Aman, who won the 800m in Ostrava last year with 1:43.78, last contested a 1000m race back in 2010 when he won the Youth Olympic Games gold medal with 2:19.54.
Lining up against Aman will be 2012 world indoor silver medallist Jakub Holusa, World University Games bronze medallist Andreas Vojta and Ireland´s World Championships representative Paul Robinson.
Meeting organisers for the Ostrava Golden Spike also confirmed the appearance of Olympic silver medallist Erik Kynard in the men’s high jump. The US champion will be aiming to improve the existing meeting record of 2.32m.
Jamaican superstars Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce have already been confirmed for the meeting, alongside pole vault world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie.
Organisers for the IAAF
