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Mile World Record Broken


Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco smashed the world record in the mile today with a time of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds at the Golden Gala track and field meet.

El Guerrouj, also the world record-holder for the indoor mile and the indoor and outdoor 1,500s, broke the record of 3:44.39 set by Noureddine Morceli of Algeria Sept. 5, 1993, at Rieti, Italy.

El Guerrouj, 24, won the 1997 world outdoor 1,500 championship and the 1995 and 1997 world indoor 1,500 titles.

When he set the outdoor 1,500 mark of 3:26.00 at last year's Golden Gala meet, he erased another of Morceli's records.

Meanwhile, Marion Jones extended her four-year unbeaten streak in the women's 200 meters and world record-holder Maurice Greene set a meet record in the men's 100.

Jones, undefeated in the 100, 200 and 400 this year, easily won the 200 in 22.18.

Greene, the 1997 world champion, won in 9.85, only .06 seconds off the world record of 9.79 he set last month.

Other early winners included Allen Johnson in the men's 110-meter hurdles, Wilson Kipketer in the men's 800 and Gabriela Szabo in the women's 3,000.

Johnson, the Olympic and two-time world champion, beat American teammates Mark Crear and Larry Wade in 13.01, the season's second-fastest time.

Kipketer, the 1997 world champion, set a season best of 1:42.79. He sprinted to victory in the final 200 meters at Olympic Stadium on a hot night.

Kipketer, Johnson and Jones also had won their races in the opening meet of the seven-meet Golden League series at Oslo last week.

The 100-meter race did not count for the Golden League series.

Last year, El Guerrouj, Jones and Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie shared the $1 million Golden League jackpot.

©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

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