Sarah Healy opened her outdoor season with third place and a personal best in the women's 3000m in the Diamond League in Rabat on Sunday evening.
After a record-breaking indoor season for the Dublin athlete that saw her crowned European Champion in the same event she contested in Rabat, she started the seven and a half lap race in the middle of the pack before it stretched quickly thanks to the world-record-attempt pace from Beatrice Chebet.
The fast early pace saw Chebet split 66 seconds for the first two laps where she was helped by two pacemakers Winne Nanyondo and Georgia Griffith. The pace slipped slightly 1600m in, which saw Italian Nadia Battocletti claw back some of Chebet's extensive lead.
Healy made a move from the group she was working in with three laps to go and steadily moved up the field before chasing down Battocletti in the final straight that saw her finish just half a second behind the Olympic fourth place finisher.
Chebet won the race by some 15 seconds in 8:11.56, she was shy of the 8:06.11 world record set by China's Junxia Wang in 1993, but was rewarded with the second fastest time ever and a national record among a few other accolades.
Healy ended up with a personal best time of 8:27.02 which is three seconds faster than her indoor record ran earlier this year and is knocking on the door of Sonia O'Sullivan's 1989 Irish record mark of 8:21.64.
Cathal Doyle also opened his season in the men's 1500m at the same meeting. The Clonliffe man sat in the middle of the pack for the most of the race, before it really started to string out coming up to the bell. In typical Doyle fashion, he seemed like he may have given himself too much to do, but making a decisive move on the back straight he put himself within the top six on the final bend.
With the field tightly packed it was a battle for places on the home straight and Doyle ended up a credible eighth, posting a time of 3:33.32, only 0.15 off his personal best set in the semi-final of the Olympic Games last year.
The race was won by Jonah Koech of the United States in a new meeting record of 3:31.43, this was also a six second personal best for the 29-year-old and represents the biggest win of his career to date.
Femke Bol was among the other season debutants in Rabat and put out her stall for the 2025 season with a meet record clocking of 52.46 in the women's 400m hurdles.
The Dutch athlete streaked away with the win. Jamaica's Andrenette Knight the best of the rest with a 53.90 season's best for second place.
Botswana's Tshepiso Masalela won the men's 800m in a meeting record of 1:42.69 – nearly half a second faster than his win in Doha earlier this month.
Olympic finalist Max Burgin clung on bravely in the home straight to clock 1:43.34 and hold off Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who took gold in Paris last summer.
