Zharnel Hughes smashes British 200m record at raucous London Diamond League

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Zharnel Hughes smashed the 30-year-old British 200m record by clocking 19.73 seconds in front of a sell-out crowd at the London Diamond League.

The 28-year-old shaved 0.21s off the previous mark of 19.94, set by John Regis at the World Championships in 1993, in finishing third at London Stadium.

His latest feat was witnessed by around 50,000 spectators and comes just a month after he broke Linford Christie’s 100m record when he ran 9.83s in New York.

American world 200m champion Noah Lyles, who on Saturday backed Hughes for the British record, triumphed in 19.47 secs, while Letsile Tebogo of Botswana was second in 19.50 secs.

Hughes claimed he had earlier forecasted his record-breaking time.

“I did it again – I predicted it,” he said. “I wrote down that exact time this morning, at about 9.30am.

“I wanted to get the British record here on home soil and I did it.

“I don’t care about winning as long as I execute the time that my coach wanted and get the British record.”

Elsewhere, Marie-Josee Ta Lou showed that she will be a force to be reckoned with at the age of 34 at next month’s World Championship as she claimed another Diamond League 100m win in a scorching 10.75 seconds.

It was the Ivorian’s third win of the series as she finished powerfully to reel in GB’s Dina Asher-Smith (10.85s), with slow-starting Jamaican Shericka Jackson third in 10.94s. American champion Sha’Carri Richardson withdrew from the race after an injury scare in her warm-up.

Dutchwoman Femke Bol showed that she is in the hottest form when she blasted to a European record of 51.45s in the 400m hurdles. Only American world record holder Sydney McLaughlin has gone faster and Bol, second behind McLaughlin in last year’s World Championship and third behind her at the Tokyo Olympics, will be hoping to finally bag global gold in Budapest.

“Amazing. I’ve been wanting to run a 51 ever since Tokyo, I had a feeling I could do it but I still can’t believe I’ve done it,” Bol said. “I hope we can put up a great race at the World Championships and put on a great show.”

Her compatriot Sifan Hassan, who won the London Marathon in April, looked short of race sharpness as Ethiopian world champion Gudaf Tsegay swept past her old rival on the home straight to win the 5,000m in a personal best 14 minutes, 12.29 seconds.

South Africa’s world record-holder and 2016 Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk continued his climb back towards his best by winning the men’s 400m in 44.36s, just edging American Bryce Deadmon (44.40s).

In the women’s 3,000m steeplechase Kenyan Jackline Chepkoech produced a brilliant personal best of 8:57.35, making her the only athlete to go under nine minutes this year.