Josh Kerr broke Steve Cram’s 39-year-old national record to claim victory in the mile race at the Diamond League meet in Eugene, Oregon.
The Scottish runner won a long-awaited showdown with his Norwegian rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen thanks to a remarkable, world-leading run of three minutes and 45.34 seconds.
Cram had held the British record since 1985 with a time of three minutes and 46.32 seconds.
Olympic 1500m champion Ingebrigtsen, who was surprised by Kerr at the world championships in Budapest last year, finished second, while Britain’s Neil Gourley and Jake Wightman finished fourth and fifth respectively.
Earlier, Keely Hodgkinson produced a dominant performance to win the women’s 800m.
The 22-year-old clocked a world-leading time of one minute and 55.78 seconds, while compatriot Jemma Reekie finished third – behind Kenya’s Mary Moraa – in a time of one minute and 57.45 seconds.
World champion Sha’Carri Richardson won her first women’s 100 meters of the Olympic year in a time of 10.83 seconds ahead of St Lucia’s Julien Alfred (10.93 seconds) and third-placed Dina Asher-Smith, whose time of 10.98 seconds was a season’s best.
Laura Muir continued her preparations for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris with a fourth-place finish in the women’s 1500 meters in a season’s best three minutes and 56.35 seconds.
The Tokyo 2020 silver medalist said: “I want to be in the best possible shape in August, so it’s a step towards running 56 (seconds) in May. It’s promising.”
Elsewhere, Kenyan Beatrice Chebet set a new world record of 28 minutes and 54.14 seconds by winning the women’s 10,000 meters.
Chebet beat the previous record of 29.01.03 set by Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey at the FBK Stadium in the Netherlands on June 8, 2021.
Chebet finished ahead of Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, who finished in 29 minutes and 5.92 seconds in cloudy and cool temperatures.
Chebet started to pull away with three laps to go, but then pounced on the final lap.
“My body responded well and I felt strong,” she said. “I felt like I was very comfortable.”
It was her first 10,000 race since 2020 in Nairobi.
The 24-year-old Chebet won the silver medal in the 5,000 meters at the 2022 world championships in Hayward Field. Last year she won bronze at the World Championships.
The finish qualified her for her first Olympic Games this summer in Paris. She said Saturday she hopes to double the 5,000 and 10,000.
“But my goal is to run the 5,000 first, and then the 10,000 second,” she said. “Because this is the first 10,000 I’m running outside the country, and I’m so happy I ran 28, a world record.”
The Prefontaine Classic is the only American stop in the international Diamond League series.