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Smith sets indoor long jump record

Smith competed in Birmingham, England over the weekend (Photograph by Rebecca Blackwell/AP)

Tyrone Smith broke his national indoor record in the long jump at the Müller Grand Prix at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham, England, at the weekend.

Smith, competing in his one and only indoor meet of the season, finished second with a leap of 7.83 metres to edge his previous best of 7.82.

Godfrey Khotso Mokoena, of South Africa, won the event with a jump of 7.99, with Fabrice Lapierre, of Australia, third in 7.76. “Wasn’t super pretty but the approach was money!” Smith wrote on his Facebook page.

It was Smith’s first outing since switching coaches after failing to reach the final at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro last summer.

Previously coached by Kyle Tellez, Smith felt he needed a fresh voice this season with Wesley Bray, a former training partner as a decathlete, now overseeing the 32-year-old’s progress.

Arantxa King, the former Bermuda long jumper, made the trip to Birmingham to support her fellow Olympian.

Smith was joined by the some of the biggest names in athletics at the meet, including Olympic champions Mo Farah, of Britain, Elaine Thompson, of Jamaica, and Britain’s top women’s sprinter Dina Asher-Smith.

Farah marked the final indoor race of his career by breaking his own European record over 5,000 metres in a win at the meet.

The four-times Olympic champion won in 13min 9.16sec beating Bahrain’s Albert Rop in a sprint for the line.

The 33-year-old Farah is planning to transfer to road racing after the World Championships in London in August.

“I can’t quite believe it is my last race but I have had a great indoor career,” Farah said. “It is something that must come to an end. It is weird thinking about it and saying goodbye.

“I had amazing support from the crowd today and I can’t quite believe it’s my last indoor race.”

Laura Muir won the 1,000m in a British record of 2:31:93, taking over a second off Dame Kelly Holmes’s 2004 mark.

Scotland’s Muir has already broken two records this year — the European 3,000 indoor record and the British 5,000 indoor record, the latter held for 25 years by Liz McColgan.

Muir will head to Belgrade for the European Indoor Championships from March 3 to 5 as favourite in both the 1,500 and 3,000. Elaine Thompson, Jamaica’s 100 and 200 Olympic gold medal-winner stormed to victory in the women’s 60 in 6.98 seconds, the eighth-fastest time ever.