yesterday when he smashed Sebastian Coe's 16-year-old mark for the men's 800 metres.

A warm, still evening at the Zurich grand prix also saw Wilson Boit Kipketer set a new mark of seven minutes 59.08 seconds for the 3,000 steeplechase and Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie destroyed his own world record for the 5,000 metres with a time of 12:41.86.

After no world records fell at the world championships in Athens last week, the richest meeting in athletics witnessed one of the most remarkable middle-distance performances of all time from Kenyan-born Kipketer. He took nearly half a second off Coe's time by clocking one minute 41.24 seconds. The world champion was just a youngster growing up in Kenya when Coe sped around a track in the Italian city of Florence to set the previous best of 1:41.73 in June 1981.

He was roared through the last 400 metres by an ecstatic crowd who could hardly believe their eyes a few minutes later when Gebrselassie won a facinating 5,000 battle with Kenyan world champion Daniel Komen to shave more than two seconds off his previous best of 12:44.39 set on the same track two years ago.

All three record-breaking athletes earned a world record bonus of $50,000 plus one kilo of gold.

There was even some good news for Bermuda when triple jumper Brian Wellman soared to his best result of the season. Fifth in Athens, Wellman had a leap of 16.99 metres to finish fourth. Yoel Queseda of Cuba won with a jump of 17.29 metres.

GOLD RECORD -- Wilson Kipketer shattered Sebastian Coe's 13-year-old world record in the 800 metres yesterday -- and earned a kilo of gold for his troubles. It was one of three records set at the Zurich meet.