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Martina flies to a national record

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Churandy Martina put the finishing gloss on his sensational season in Lausanne on Thursday night by smashing his Dutch 200m record.

Running from lane seven, Martina took control of the race into the home turn and won in 19.81, breaking the old mark by 0.04.

That had been set four years and two days ago at this same stadium and at the age of 32, Martina remains at the peak of his powers.

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Last week in Rio, he missed out on an Olympic medal by just 0.01 and last month he was among the Dutch heroes at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam when he won 100m gold and thought he had also won the 200m before being disqualified for running out his lane.

This time of 19.81 has extra significance too, as it puts Martina all on his own in third on the European all-time list behind Italian Pietro Mennea (19.72A) and France's Christophe Lemaitre (19.80), with Greece's Konstadinos Kederis (19.85) in fourth.

Martina has not ruled out the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 and will surely be in Berlin in 2018 to defend his European crown.

'I have had my ups and downs in 2016 but I am happy with how it shaped up and I am happy with my run today. A national record at the end of the season – you cannot ask for more,' said Martina after victory at this IAAF Diamond League event.

'I am running as good as I have ever run. Who knows if I can continue until Tokyo? If I manage to do so, I would have done five Olympics and that is something for a sprinter. No matter how I finish, I am content and I am sure I will be remembered.'

If there was a fear he would not have much left after his exploits in Rio, which would be understandable having run 20.13 to finish fifth behind bronze medallist Lemaitre (20.12) and Great Britain’s Adam Gemili (20.12), it was anything but as Martina was just flying in the last event of the night.

He broke away in the final 40m to win in some style from Panama’s Alonso Edward (19.92) and Jamaican Julian Forte (20.16).

It was a good night for the Netherlands as Liemarvin Bonevacia ran a fine race for third in the 400m (45.26), beating Czech star Pavel Maslak (fourth in 45.35) and Britain’s Martyn Rooney (fifth in 45.46), as American LaShawn Merritt (44.50) won from Bahamian Steve Gardiner (44.75).

Revenge arrived for Spain’s Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega in the 110m hurdles as he beat Rio champion Omar McLeod.

Ortega won in 13.11 from Jamaican McLeod (13.12) and France’s Dimitri Bascou (13.25).

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The women’s javelin saw Latvian Madara Palameika, the 2009 European Under-23 champion who was 10th at the Olympics, produce one of the best results of her career as she won with 65.29m and in the process triumphed in a high-class field including the Czech Republic’s world record-holder Barbora Spotakova (64.48m), who was second, and Belarusian Tatsiana Khaladovich, the European champion, was third (64.15m).

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Estonia’s Rasmus Magi (48.59) beat Kenya Nicholas Bett (48.68) to win the 400m hurdles with a terrific finish.

Belgium’s Philip Milanov (65.61m) overcame the disappoitment of not winning a discus medal in Rio winning in Lausanne from Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger (64.84m) and Hungary's Zoltan Kovago (64.52m).

Ivana Spanovic, fresh from her Olympic bronze, maintained her consistency by winning the long jump with 6.83m from Britain’s Lorraine Ugen (6.71m) and though Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski was fifth in the 1000m, his time of 2:14.30 broke Adam Kszczot’s national record of 2:15.72. The race was won by Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman in 2:13.49, a world-leading time.

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