Keely Hodgkinson holds off Femke Broeders-Bol to win the 800m at the Novuna London Athletics Meet, while Cierra Jackson produced a Diamond League record in the discus and Kanyinsola Ajayi upset Oblique Seville in the 100m.

Going into the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday (July 18) the near-60,000 crowd were optimistic they would see at least one world record.

Would Mondo Duplantis break his 16th world pole vault record? Could Keely Hodgkinson get close to Jarmila Kratochvilova’s longstanding 800m mark? A few days after breaking the world 1000m record, Emmanuel Wanyonyi had David Rudisha’s 800m record in his sights. In the Emsley Carr Mile, Josh Kerr had boldly stated his ambition to beat Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:43.13 from 1999.

The men’s pole vault record seemed the most likely to go, but after Duplantis withdrew mid-competition with a thigh injury it was left to the middle-distance runners with Kerr, in the penultimate event of the day, clocking a scintillating 3:42.66 to bring the mile record back to Britain.

You can read more about Kerr’s historic run in our separate report here. The flying Scotsman’s powerhouse performance was the main talking point both before and after this meeting, too, but there was still plenty of action in the London Stadium with PBs aplenty, national, meeting and Diamond League records.

Kerr aside, the women’s 800m was the headline act. Organisers placed it at the end of the programme and it was packed with the leading Brits, plus half-lap newcomer Femke Broeders-Bol, although Georgia Hunter Bell and Phoebe Gill withdrew on the eve of the meeting.

The heat was on Hodgkinson after a shaky few weeks that included defeats to Audrey Werro in Stockholm and Lilian Odira in Eugene, plus a nasty knee injury following a training fall. Hodgkinson ran confidently, though, stretching away from Broeders-Bol on the final lap and holding the Dutch athlete off in the closing stages to win in 1:56.21 from Broeders-Bol's 1:56.46 as Tsige Duguma, Sarah Billings, Jemma Reekie and Issy Boffey followed.

“There are mixed emotions,” said Hodgkinson. “I am going to take the positives because it has been a tough couple of weeks. Not everything always goes to plan, but I am proud with how I have dealt with it. The only reason I came here today is because I wanted to race in front of a home crowd. I am happy to get that out of the way and focus on the Europeans next.”

Now we look forward to a big clash at the European Championships in Birmingham from August 10-16 with Werro back in action after completing a training block in Livigno, Italy, this month.

Not only did the in-form Wanyonyi fall well outside Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 but he finished only fourth in a race won by Brandon Miller of the United States in a huge PB of 1:42.19.

Mark English of Ireland joined the 1:42 club with a 1:42.97 PB in second place after his usual well-timed charge from behind. Max Burgin was third in 1:43.30 after going out a little too hard, especially as he missed training following his early season victory in Rabat due to an Achilles problem.

Wanyonyi clocked 1:43.31 after fading in the final 150m, while Ben Pattison clocked a season’s best of 1:43.34 in fifth.

Burgin said: “I wasn't lacking in fitness, I think I was just lacking in sharpness. I had taken the month off with an achilles problem after Rabat, so I have had quite a bit of bike work building up to this one which was a bit unfortunate. Hopefully by the time we get to the championships in a few weeks time, the sharpness will be there.”

Another shock came in the men’s 100m when Kanyinsola Ajayi of Nigeria clocked 9.84 (-0.7) to beat world champion and the winner here last year, Oblique Seville of Jamaica.

The NCAA champion even gave Seville a stare-down as he crossed the finish line. Romell Glave was the best of the Brits in third with a 9.97 PB as Zharnel Hughes and Jeremiah Azu finished seventh and eighth.

READ MORE: Josh Kerr storms to world mile record

As the 100m was unfolding, Duplantis pulled out of the pole vault with a best of 5.95m. In his absence, Sam Kendricks of the United States won the competition, also with 5.95m, as Kurtis Marshall was third and Emmanouil Karalis fourth – all of the men sharing the same height.

There was a big surprise in the women’s discus, too. On a day when the World Athletics president Seb Coe was asked by the media about whether betting could soon be introduced into top-level meetings such as the upcoming World Athletics Ultimate Championship (the answer is no by the way), you would have got good odds on Cierra Jackson winning at the London Diamond League.

Yet Jackson threw a Diamond League record of 71.72m in the final round to improve her PB by four metres from 67.82m.

The 2025 NCAA champion is from Arizona and her recent form included finishing fourth in Rabat, seventh in Xiamen, ninth in Stockholm and no-marking in Eugene.

What’s more, she beat world No.1 Valarie Sion of the United States and her throw was the best outside of the discus throwers’ paradise of Ramona since 1989.

Full of emotion, she said: “I texted my coach before and he said to get the crowd clapping on the last throw. It always makes me so nervous to do the clap.

“There are other events going on so you don't know if they are going to clap for you or not, but then the whole stadium did. This is my favourite bit of track and field.

“I was super nervous going into that throw. I couldn't feel my hands, my stomach was hurting, I just took a deep breath and threw and I watched it fly. My stomach started hurting immediately, I have never felt that feeling before. I was like oh my god, and then I saw the mark and I could not breathe.

“My friends were hugging me and were so excited. I was shocked, I still am shocked. I am going to call my mum. It is 5am at home, so have got to wait until it is a decent time for her.”

More predictable was Karsten Warholm’s win in the 400m hurdles but the Norwegian didn’t stroll to a routine victory. As usual he pushed himself and clocked 46.61 – a world lead, meeting record and his sixth best ever time.

Behind, Emil Agyekum created history as his 47.75 beat Harald Schmid’s long-time German record – a mark that has stood since 1982.

British champion Alastair Chalmers clocked 48.81 for sixth place from the inside lane.

Warholm said: “Competing in London brings back memories of 2017 every single time. It sounds cliche, but this stadium brings very special meaning to me, it is fantastic to be here.”

Henriette Jaeger improved her Norwegian record to 49.15 in the women’s 400m as she finished runner-up to Marileidy Paulino’s 48.97. Such was the standard, Brits Yemi Mary John (50.24) and Charlotte Henrich (50.45 PB) finished seventh and eighth, although the ‘national 400m’ earlier in the day also saw some good performances with hurdles specialist Emily Newnham leading the way with a 50.32 victory ahead of Lina Nielsen’s 50.61 – both of which were PBs.

Ja’Kobe Tharp was a relatively late signing due to him enjoying a great breakthrough season with a 12.75 world record at the NCAA Championships last month. He didn’t repeat that here but still impressed with a meeting record of 12.89 (-0.3) for a clear win.

Meet director Spencer Barden does a fine job pulling together the fields for this meeting and the women’s 200m was also stacked with quality, leading to another meeting record.

This time Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia ran 21.66 (0.1) as she beat Gabby Thomas, the American running 21.81.

Shaunae Miller-Uibo finished fast for third in 22.24 as Dina Asher-Smith ran a strong bend and clocked 22.28 to hold off Amy Hunt, the world silver medallist running 22.30, with British champion Success Eduan sixth in 22.53.

One of the loudest roars of the day came in the men’s 400m as Rai Benjamin clocked 44.05 to hold off British record-holder Matt Hudson-Smith (44.18) and Jacory Patterson (44.25).

In the women’s 3000m, Sonia O’Sullivan’s long-standing meeting record of 8:21.64 continues to survive. The race was won by Jess Hull in 8:24.69 from fellow Australia Rose Davies and Ireland’s Sarah Healy with a PB of 8:25.63 as Britain’s Hannah Nuttall ran a PB in fourth with 8:26.48 – all of them finishing ahead of five decent Ethiopian athletes.

Megan Keith made a bold attempt halfway through the race to run away from the opposition but she blew up in the latter stages and was overtaken by fellow Scot Laura Muir on the last lap, with Muir clocking a battling 8:31.77.

Such was the quality, Innes FitzGerald finished only 17th in a fine 8:35.42 – one year after her 5000m European under-20 record breakthrough run at the same meeting. Just ahead of FitzGerald, Eloise Walker ran a PB of 8:34.80.

Morgan Lake couldn’t repeat her brilliant Diamond League win from 12 months ago as she cleared only 1.85m in the high jump here. Instead, victory went to Nicola Olyslagers of Australia with 2.01m as she beat Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine on count back.

Mailaka Mihambo of Germany was in great form ahead of the European Championships as she soared out to 7.05m to beat Claire Bryant of the United States (6.94m) and Larissa Iapichino of Italy (6.82m) as Britain's Lucy Hadaway and Jazmin Sawyers leapt 6.64m and 6.53m respectively.

One of the most dramatic moments of the day came in one of the pre-Diamond League events – the ‘national 800m’ for men – as Jack Higgins threw himself over the line in a desperate and successful attempt to hold off the fast finishing Henry Jonas.

Not usually known as a front runner, Higgins found himself in the lead on the second lap and held on grimly to clock 1:45.15 for the win.

“I was just trying to hold it together coming into the last 100m,” he said. “I could sense I was going backwards and I could feel Henry Jonas was coming, so I had to throw myself over the line. It was not the most graceful crossing of the line. To take the win at such an amazing event is very special.”

British teams showed good form in both 4x100m relays. Firstly Azu, Louie Hinchliffe, Hughes and Glave clocked 37.95 to beat Australia in the men’s race.

READ MORE: Josh Kerr storms to world mile record

Hinchliffe said: “It’s important to get the win which we did and that's all that matters. It was good to be back with the full team; the chemistry was good. I've got Commonwealth Games next which I'm really ready for.”

Asher-Smith, Hunt, Eduan and Imani-Lara Lansiquot teamed up to win the women’s race in 42.06.

A number of para-athletics races occupied the early part of the programme with one of the highlights being the sight of Marcel Hug – the Swiss ‘silver bullet’ – winning the men’s T54 wheelchair 1500m in 2:59.24.

“I really enjoyed competing in this stadium again in front of this crowd,” he said, “it really is amazing.

"It is a shorter distance than the marathon, but I like it. It was a good performance for me, not quite the time I was aiming for, but to come back here is always special.”

Orla Comerford of Ireland ran a PB to win the women's 100m ambulant race in 11.79. Ben Sandilands was a runaway winner of the men’s 1500m ambulant race in 3:49.26. Zac Shaw took the men's 100m ambulant race in 10.97.