British pair Amy Hunt and Georgia Hunter Bell had to settle for fifth and third respectively in strong fields at Thursday’s Diamond League meeting in Zurich.
Hunt, who won four gold medals at the European Championships earlier this month, clocked 11.04 seconds in a 100 metres won by Olympic champion Julien Alfred in 10.70sec.
Hunter Bell could not match Audrey Werro, who lowered her personal best to win the women’s 800m in one minute 53.70sec, just 0.42 seconds short of the world record.
Two other world records were broken on an eventful evening. Brazil’s Alison dos Santos set a new best of 45.80 in the men’s 400m hurdles and American Masai Russell lowered the women’s 100m hurdles to 12.09.
Hunt faced a formidable test as she looked to take her continental dominance onto the world stage.
Alfred, unbeaten over the distance in almost two years, was highly impressive as she pushed world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden into second place. American Sha’Carri Richardson was third with Hunt finishing behind Jamaica’s Tina Clayton.
“I was coming in here and not thinking too much about the time,” Hunt told the BBC. “To come fifth in that line-up – I think I had the slowest season’s best coming in and obviously very, very tired legs – I’m really happy with that.”
Despite the absence of Keely Hodgkinson, the women’s 800m boasted a world-class field and home favourite Werro powered to victory ahead of Femke Broeders-Bol. Hunter Bell ran a season’s best of 1:55.03.
Dos Santos smashed Karsten Warholm’s previous world record of 45.94 and beat the Norwegian in the process. Russell’s time eclipsed the 12.12 run by Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan in 2012.
Mondo Duplantis missed out on another world record in the men’s pole vault as both he and Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis went agonisingly close to clearing 6.32m.
That would have beaten Duplantis’ previous best by a single centimetre but the Swede still triumphed with a vault of 6.25m. Karalis settled for second and a personal best 6.20m.
