Speaking after this 200m victory during the London Anniversary Games, the six-time Olympic champion clocked 19.89 seconds in his first appearance since suffering a hamstring injury.
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“I’m not fully in shape, I need more work”.
The 100 meter hurdles world record of 12.21 seconds stood for 28 years until being smashed yesterday in London by American runner Kendra Harrison-who didn’t learn until about a minute after the race that she’d broken one of track & field’s most impenetrable barriers.
The confidence-boosting run comes after the 23-year-old American failed to make the US team for the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next month. “I concentrated a bit too much maybe, and mucked it up really”, Doyle said.
Bolt, 29, had been sidelined since early June with a thigh muscle tear which forced him to withdraw from the Jamaican Olympic trials.
Scot Muir broke Dame Kelly Holmes’ 12-year-old British record in the 1500m, clocking three minutes 57.49 seconds in a race she controlled. 15 second earlier than the second placeholder Panama’s Edward Alonso.
Christine Ohuruogu emphatically justified her inclusion in the British team for the individual 400m in Rio by running the fastest time in the country this year at 51.05, although it was only good enough for fifth. The fastest man in the world is now the owner of 6 Olympic gold medals.
“It’s going to be a long time, I personally think, before somebody comes who is as talented as me, to break my records”, he responded when asked about the future of sprinting.
“I didn’t even know it (the last lap) was that quick”, said Farah, who now heads to Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees to add the finishing touches to his Rio preparations.
“To hear people call me a world record holder, it sounds remarkable”.
The world record breakthrough comes after disappointments for Harrison that extend back to the 2015 world championships in Beijing, where she was disqualified for a false start in the semifinals.
In that race, Brits Tiffany Porter (12.70sec) and Jessica Ennis-Hill (13.04sec) were sixth and eighth respectively.
“Good luck to the girls running in Rio – I’m just shocked right now!” “You have one bad day but I knew I still had it in me”, Harrison said.
“I was confident already going into Rio, but to take a Diamond League record on home soil going into the Olympics, that couldn’t have made my confidence any higher”.
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In the pole vault, the Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie was the comfortable victor, his mark of 5.90m being 7cm clear of American Sam Kendricks.
