Kenya's Moses Mosop broke the 30-year-old world record for 30,000 meters run on a track in Eugene, Oregon on Friday at the Prefontaine Classic athletics meeting.
Mosop, 25, clocked 1hr 26min 47.4sec for the rarely contested event. Along the way he broke the record for 25,000 meters run on the track with a time of 1hr 12min 25.4sec.
Both previous records had been set by Japan's Toshihiko Seko in Christchurch, New Zealand on March 22, 1981.
Seko clocked 1:13:55.8 for the 25,000m and 1:29:18.8 for the 30,000m.
The race was part of special Distance Night festivities on the eve of the main Prefontaine meeting, which is the fourth stop in the prestigious Diamond League series.
Eight men lined up for the daunting 75-lap contest.
Mosop, the 2005 world championships bronze medallist in the 10,000m, had lapped all the other runners with 16 laps -- 6,400 meters -- to go.
The small but enthusiastic crowd, enjoying late summer evening sunshine at Eugene's Hayward Field, gave Mosop plenty of encouragement as he completed his final lap, thrusting his arms skyward after breaking the tape.
