MELISSA Courtney-Bryant was among the 1,500m record-breakers in a sensational race at the World Athletics Gold Indoor meeting in Lievin, France, reports Nigel Harding.

Stepping down from her more familiar 3,000m, the Poole Athletic Club ace bossed a pack of European competitors to post a new Welsh indoor best time of 4:04.79.

However, third-placed Courtney-Bryant also lost by 10 seconds as Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay smashed the world indoor record by more than two seconds with 3:53.09. Runner-up Laura Muir was left trailing six seconds adrift despite breaking the British indoor best in 3:59.58.

While Muir leads the British indoor rankings from her training partner Jemma Reekie, Courtney-Bryant now goes fourth on the list behind Dame Kelly Holmes.

Previously, Courtney-Bryant opened her campaign by thwarting an African clean-sweep over 3,000m in Karlsruhe, Germany. She never quite challenged world steeplechase champion and record holder Beatrice Chepkoech, who had beaten her to the 2018 Commonwealth 1,500m silver medal.

She was also out-kicked by Ethiopian Fantu Worku, but remained competitive in the fast closing stages to clock 8:42.41.

Courtney-Bryant had only run faster when taking the bronze medal at the 2018 European Indoor Championships.

These performances were enough to qualify her for both 1,500m and 3,000m at the 2021 Championships in March at Torun.

However, a slight foot injury has now forced her to focus on Olympic preparation rather than competing in Poland.

Though elite racing is still permitted, Courtney-Bryant’s usual winter training camp in Kenya has been impossible in the pandemic. Having ranked 15th in the world over 1,500m last year, she has been working round the problem by sleeping in a tent within her Loughborough-based bubble.

Her altitude tent replicates sleeping in the thin atmosphere of 2,400m altitude in the Kenyan Highlands.

World Athletics gold meeting results, Lievin - women’s 1,500m: Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia) 3:53.09, Laura Muir (GB) 3:59.58, Melissa Courtney-Bryant (GB) 4:04.79, Elise Vanderelst (Netherlands) 3:05.71.

Karlsruhe - women's 3,000m: Beatrice Chepkoech (Kenya) 8:41.98, Fantu Worku (Ethiopia) 8:42.22, Melissa Courtney-Bryant (GB) 8:42.41, Gloriah Kite (Kenya) 8:44.43.