Dutch star comes close to European record at Diamond League in the Swedish capital as Keely Hodgkinson runs UK U23 and U20 800m record

Femke Bol moved to No.4 on the world all-time lists for the women’s 400m hurdles as she scored an impressive win over American Shamier Little at the Diamond League in Stockholm on Sunday (July 4).

The Dutch athlete ran a Diamond League record of 52.37 as she held on to beat Little, who clocked 52.39 in second.

“I’m amazed, I’m so happy!” said Bol, after missing Yulia Pechonkina’s European record by three hundredths of a second. “I was one second off my PB and I’m already running PBs.

“I think running PBs is going to stop for now, but I hope to keep on getting close to this time. I can’t believe it! In two days I have another competition in Hungary with the same field so it will be exciting.”

The men’s 400m hurdles also saw a brilliant run from Alison Dos Santos as he improved his South American record to 47.34. A few days earlier he had finished runner-up to Karsten Warholm as the Norwegian set a world record but here in Stockholm the 21-year-old showed again he will be a force in Tokyo.

In fifth, Chris McAlister of Britain shaved his PB down to 49.16.

A high quality men’s pole vault saw Mondo Duplantis take the win with a meeting record of 6.02m and he had some failed attempts at a world record of 6.19m as well. Sam Kendricks was runner-up with a season’s best of 5.92m as Renaud Lavillenie also jumped an equal season’s best of 5.92m.

There was no victory for Holly Bradshaw in the women’s pole vault, though, as the British record-holder cleared a best of 4.61m behind winner Polina Knoroz’s 4.71m.

Keely Hodgkinson’s fine form continued as she clocked a UK under-23 and under-20 record of 1:57.51 in the women’s 800m.

Hodgkinson was fourth in a race won by Rose Mary Almanza in 1:56.28, with Natoya Goule second and Kate Grace third, but the Briton’s time lifted her from No.13 to No.3 on the UK all-time rankings behind Kirsty Wade and national record-holder Kelly Holmes.

The men’s 800m races were also eventful from a British perspective. Ferguson Rotich of Kenya won the A race in 1:43.84 as Elliot Giles ran an outdoor PB of 1:44.05, although fellow Brit Jamie Webb jogged in last.

In the B race, another Kenyan, Jonathan Kitilit, won in 1:44.68 as British runners Archie Davis (1:44.72), Piers Copeland (1:45.77) and Jake Heyward (1:46.47) all clocked PBs.

Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the high jump with a world lead of 2.03m. The Ukrainian was in superb form but runner-up Nicola McDermott also shone as the in-form Australian cleared an Oceania record of 2.01m.

The men’s long jump was also a great standard as world champion Tajay Gayle won with 8.55m from runner-up Juan Miguel Echevarria, the Cuban jumping 8.29m, as Thobias Montler from Sweden jumped 8.23m in front of his home crowd in third.

Another Swede in good form was Daniel Stahl as the discus giant scored a victory with 68.64m – two metres clear of his nearest rival, Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia. “Today was really fun to throw in my home town and with the crowd and everyone,” said Stahl. “It was nice weather, the sun was shining, the Swedish summer. It was really nice to have a home crowd.”

Elsewhere Ronnie Baker of the United States won the men’s 100m in 10.03 (-0.8) as British champion CJ Ujah was third in 10.10. Kirani James of Grenada won the men’s 400m in 44.63 and Timothy Cheruiyot the men’s 1500m in 3:32.30.

The men’s 3000m steeplechase was won by Samuel Firewu of Ethiopia in 8:20.27 as Zak Seddon ran a season’s best of 8:23.22 to go No.2 on the UK rankings for 2021 behind Phil Norman.

The women’s ‘chase went to Hyvin Kiyeng in 9:04.34 as the Kenyan finished five seconds ahead of runner-up Gesa Krause of Germany with Beatrice Chepkoech third.

Competing in her first Diamond League since 2018, mother-of-two Valerie Adams of New Zealand won the shot put with 19.26m as Auriol Dongmo of Portugal was a close second.

Malaika Mihambo went over seven metres in the long jump with 7.02m in the third round but when the ‘final three’ last round arrived it was Ivana Spanovic who claimed victory with 6.88m.

In-form Shericka Jackson of Jamaica convincingly won the 200m in 22.10 as Britain’s Beth Dobbin was fourth in 22.84.