Men’s short track 4x800m
7:10.29 USA (Clay Pender, Luke Houser, Luciano Fiore, Sean Dolan) Philadelphia, 6 February 2026
Men’s short track 400m
44.52 Khaleb McRae (USA) Fayetteville, 13 February 2026
Men’s pole vault
6.31m Mondo Duplantis (SWE) Uppsala, 12 March 2026
Men’s heptathlon
6670 Simon Ehammer (SUI) Torun, 21 March 2026
Women’s 60m hurdles
7.65 Devynne Charlton (BAH) Torun, 22 March 2026
Men’s marathon
1:59:30 Sabastian Sawe (KEN) London, 26 April 2026
Women’s marathon (women only)
2:15:41 Tigst Assefa (ETH) London, 26 April 2026
U20 women’s javelin
71.74m Yan Ziyi (CHN) Xiamen, 23 May 2026
Seven senior world records and one world U20 record set during the first five months of 2026 have been ratified by World Athletics.
Simon Ehammer and Devynne Charlton achieved their records at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26 in March.
Ehammer regained his world indoor heptathlon title with a score of 6670, breaking the long-standing world record of 6645 set by USA’s Ashton Eaton in Istanbul on 10 March 2012.
The Swiss athlete started strongly with 6.69 in the 60m and consolidated his lead with 8.31m in the long jump. He went on to clock a world heptathlon best of 7.52 in the 60m hurdles before completing the competition with a 2:41.04 PB run in the 1000m.
The following day, Charlton retained her world indoor 60m hurdles title in 7.65, equalling the world record she set when winning the first of her three world indoor titles in Glasgow on 3 March 2024.
Sabastian Sawe and Tigst Assefa produced world record performances in the men’s and women’s races when retaining their titles at the TCS London Marathon on 26 April.
Sawe became the first man to break two hours in a record-eligible marathon, clocking 1:59:30 to take 65 seconds off the world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago on 8 October 2023.
After being involved in a historic battle with Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, Sawe made his decisive move with one mile remaining and pulled away to win in 1:59:30. Kejelcha also broke two hours with 1:59:41, while Kiplimo finished third in 2:00:28.
Assefa successfully defended her title in 2:15:41, taking nine seconds off the women-only world record of 2:15:50 that she set in London on 27 April 2025.
The Ethiopian gradually broke clear of Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei during the closing stages. Obiri finished second in a PB of 2:15:53 and Jepkosgei was third in 2:15:55, marking the first time three women had broken 2:16 in the same race.
Mondo Duplantis improved his own world pole vault record by one centimetre at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala on 12 March.
Competing in the city where he was born and at the meeting that bears his name, the multiple world and Olympic champion cleared 6.31m. His previous record of 6.30m had been set when winning his third consecutive world title in Tokyo on 15 September 2025.
USA’s Khaleb McRae broke the men’s world short track 400m record at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville on 13 February.
McRae passed the halfway point in 21.24 before opening a significant advantage on the second lap and crossing the line in 44.52, taking 0.05 off the ratified world record of 44.57 set by his compatriot Kerron Clement on the same track on 12 March 2005.
Michael Norman and Christopher Morales Williams have both recorded faster times, but neither performance was eligible for ratification.
China’s Yan Ziyi produced the second-best women’s javelin performance in history at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Xiamen on 23 May.
The 18-year-old launched the javelin 71.74m in the opening round, adding almost six metres to the world U20 record of 65.89m that she set in Quzhou on 3 August 2025. Her throw also moved her behind only world record-holder Barbora Spotakova on the senior all-time list.
The latest batch of ratified marks also includes the world short track 4x800m record set by USA’s Clay Pender (1:49.69), Luke Houser (1:47.47), Luciano Fiore (1:47.35) and Sean Dolan (1:45.79) at the Penn Classic in Philadelphia on 6 February.
The quartet clocked 7:10.29, improving the previous world record of 7:11.30 set by a US team in Boston on 25 February 2018.
World Athletics
