Norway’s Karsten Warholm was the star on day one of this weekend’s Anniversary Games in London, as home favourite Laura Muir continued her terrific recent form with a dominant win in the 1500m.
Back at the London Stadium, where he won gold at the 2017 World Championships, Warholm smashed the European record over 400m hurdles with the fastest time ever run in Britain.
His terrific 47:12 catapulted him to the top of this season’s world rankings, further building excitement over a potential clash with the USA’s Rai Benjamin and Qatar’s Abderrahaman Samba at this year’s World Championships in Doha.
Muir, meanwhile, arrived in something approaching the form of her life, having run a PB over 800m in Monaco last weekend.
Back over her preferred 1500m here, a modest early pace meant her own British record never looked under threat, but she tore away from a high-class field with a final lap of 57.3 seconds to win by more than a second-and-a-half in 3:58:25.
Britain’s Zharnel Hughes twice ducked under 10 seconds in the 100m heats and final, but was ultimately forced to settle for second and a season’s best of 9:95 behind South Africa’s Akani Simbine.
There were two Scottish records on the day as Beth Dobbin (20:50) finished third in the 200m, behind double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson, after Andy Butchart had confirmed his return to form with fifth in 13:06:21 in the men’s 5000m.
That race was won by Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet, with Norwegian teen sensation Jakob Ingebritsen second in new European junior and national senior records.
Laviai Nielsen continued her excellent season, taking almost half a second off her PB with a gutsy run to finish third in the women’s 400m in 50:83, while in the men’s 800m, Jamie Webb and Kyle Langford both dipped below 1:45 for the first time, achieving qualifying times for Doha in the process.
Jamaica’s Danielle Williams was among the other star international performers, twice breaking her personal best to win the women’s 100m hurdles in a national record 12.32, the seventh fastest time in history.
