Mägi crossed the finish line in 47.82 seconds, ahead of Wilfried Happoi of France in second place, who posted a time of 49.12. Mario Lambrug of Italy finished third, in 49.21 seconds.

Prior to his record-breaking run in Turku, Mägi's best time for the season was the 48.66 seconds he recorded in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on May 28.

Mägi's 47.82 seconds was the third fastest time recorded in the men's 400m hurdles so far this season, with only Brazil's Alison Dos Santos (47.23) and Rai Benjamin of the USA (47.49) quicker than the Estonian in 2022.

Mägi, who, alongside fencer Katrina Lehis, was voted Estonian athlete of the year in 2021, also set the previous Estonian national record of 48.11 seconds when finishing seventh in the final of the Tokyo Olympics last summer.

Mägi said, he hadn't thought about setting a record before the race and that now having done so, his first feeling was one of relief. "I've been chasing it (the record) for quite a long time anyway, although it's only in the last few months that I've really got a sense of what it means to run under 48 seconds. The mission continues and new races are waiting for me," he said.

Elsewhere in the Paavo Nurmi Games, Slovenia's Kristjan Čeh, who is coached by Estonian Gerd Kanter, had to settle for third place in the men's discus, throwing a distance of  67.76m, with Lithuania's Andrius Gudžius coming second with 68.09m.

On the same day, in Kladno, Czech Republic, sprinter Karl Erik Nazarov ran a personal best of 10.34 seconds in the men's 100m. Nazarov's was the third fastest time ever recorded by an Estonian, putting him alongside Mihhail Urjadnikov and behind Marek Niid (10.19) and Argo Golberg (10.28) in the all-time national rankings.

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