Zharnel Hughes might be the fastest sprinter in Europe based on season’s bests but he had to settle for third in thrilling 100m final at the British Championships in Birmingham.
Former European U20 and U23 champion Ojie Edoburun just had the edge to beat Adam Gemili and Hughes. All three men were timed at 10.18 in a superb race which would have been much faster if the finalists weren’t buffered by a 1.9 m/s headwind.
Gemili, the 2014 European 200m champion, went one better 24 hours later when on Sunday he won that title, showing the form of old with his fastest time at the distance for three years. He triumphed in 20.08 against a 1.2 m/s headwind from Hughes (20.25) and Miguel Francis (20.34).
Dina Asher-Smith is dealing with the expectation superbly as she heads to Doha a favourite for the 200m and a big medal hope in the 100m too.
She opted for the shorter sprint at the weekend and she went home with a piece of history, breaking the championship record to win in 10.96. Asher-Smith just missed the sub-11 second mark in the semifinal with 11.03 against a 2.0 m/s headwind but her 10.96 clocking to win the title ensured that Asher-Smith has broken the 11 second-barrier in each of her five 100m finals in 2019.
British 100m Champion over the moon to have retained my title yesterday and to have run some pretty good times into headwinds - even set a championship record in the final!!! Just a couple of races left before the World Champs in xxx pic.twitter.com/lnqYMktsWt
— Dina Asher-Smith (@dinaashersmith) August 25, 2019
The comeback of Jodie Williams reached great heights as she took the women’s 200m title on Sunday in 23.06 ahead of Beth Dobbin against a vicious 4.3 m/s headwind. Reigning European champion Matthew Hudson-Smith is also making up for lost time by winning the 400m in 45.15 - the second fastest time by a European in 2019 in just his second race of the season.
Two weeks after winning the European Athletics Team Championships in Bydgoszcz with a breakthrough 17.14m, former world U18 champion Ben Williams extended his lifetime best again to 17.27m to win the triple jump which was followed by an excellent quality long jump competition in which Abigail Irozuru also set a PB of 6.86m to beat European bronze medallist Shara Proctor by two centimetres.
Holly Bradshaw also defied the blustery conditions to win the pole vault title with a 4.73m clearance - a championship record - while Morgan Lake cleared 1.94m in the high jump to beat Katarina Johnson-Thompson with 1.90m. Nick Miller also won the hammer with 76.31m.
It was also a memorable afternoon for European U23 bronze medallist, Callum Wilkinson who broke Tom Bosworth’s British 5000m walk record as he won in 18:41.23.
Bukowiecki beats Haratyk for the Polish shot put title
Konrad Bukowiecki showed it is not all about Michal Haratyk in the Polish shot put stakes this year with one of his best performances of the season to win the national title in Radom on Sunday.
Haratyk is the European champion - indoors and out - and leads the European list with his national record of 22.32m from last month.
But on this occasion Bukowiecki, who has a season’s best of 21.97m, reached 21.83m to secure victory at the Polish Championships where his fourth round effort of 21.70m would also have been enough to have beaten Haratyk, whose best mark was 21.45m.
Another reigning European champion was also beaten in the hammer – by a triple world champion. Wojciech Nowicki won the crown in Berlin last summer when Pawel Fajdek was second but this time the positions were reversed.
Fajdek, who will be seeking his fourth successive gold at the IAAF World Championships in Doha next month, won with 78.61m from Nowicki with 74.74m.
After running a national record of 3:31.95 in the 1500m at the Diamond League in Paris on Saturday, Marcin Lewandowski flew in on Sunday to win the men’s national title in a tactical 3:57.60 with Sofia Ennaoui taking the women’s event in 4:13.07.
On Saturday, there was a surprise in the men’s discus as Bartlomiej Stoj with 64.33m beat double European champion Piotr Malachowski (63.17m) and Robert Urbanek (61.98m) and in the women’s 400m, Iga Baumgart-Witan’s 51.48 was enough to beat Anna Kielbasinska (51.51) and reigning European champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic (51.63).
The Swiss 200m record is in new hands after a superb run by world indoor 60m bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundji at the Swiss Championships in Basel.
Lea Sprunger had held the time of 22.38 since 2016 but Kambundji added this mark to her 100m national record by winning in 22.26. In doing so, Kambundji completed the sprint double after winning the 100m title on Friday night in 11.00 and moves to second on the 2019 European list behind Asher-Smith in both sprint events.
Alex Wilson also completed the sprint double - 10.26 in the 100m and 20.44 in the 200m while Kariem Hussein, the 2014 European champion from Zurich, won the 400m hurdles in 49.21, his fastest time since 2017.
At the Serbian Championships in Krusevac, three-time European indoor champion Ivana Spanovic produced a jump of 6.76m to win the long jump and veteran Dragana Tomasevic won the discus with 61.56m.
In March, Spain’s Javier Cienfuegos broke the national hammer record with 77.32m and now he has increased that distance to 78.16m after a superb throw at home in Leon on Saturday.