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Keely Hodgkinson sent another ominous warning to her rivals ahead of next month’s World Athletics Championships as she smashed the meeting record to win the 800m at the Lausanne Diamond League.In weather more akin to Manchester in October than a summer’s night in Switzerland, Hodgkinson ran 1min 55.69sec to beat a quality field by 10 metres and win her second race in four days.True, the Olympic champion’s time was nearly a second outside her staggering performance in Poland on Saturday, where she ran the ninth quickest in history. But in cool and wet conditions she still easily ran the second fastest time of the year.Audrey Werro of Switzerland took second in 1:57.34 after passing Hodgkinson’s training partner, Georgia Hunter Bell, in the closing metres. But they were all in a different stratosphere to Hodgkinson, who wiped Maria Mutola’s 1:56.25 previous record, set in 2002, from the record books.“I couldn’t have asked for a better start this season,” said Hodgkinson, who until Saturday had not raced for 376 days after suffering three hamstring tears in nine months. “When the pace goes like that, you just forget about everyone else and it paid off with a solid performance.”Understandably Hunter Bell, the Olympic 1500m bronze medallist, was more frustrated by her performance. “It was a little cold and wet, but coming from England we can’t really complain,” said Hunter Bell. “I still wanted to run quicker.” Hunter Bell will announce whether she will run the 800m or 1500m at the world championships in Tokyo later this week. This race will not have made her decision any easier.Horse racing aficionados are well-acquainted with the Bounce Factor – the tendency for horses to run very well after an extended break and then to perform poorly on their second race back. But there was no sign of that with Hodgkinson.And this victory in Lausanne also sent a deeper message: you take on the world No 1 at your peril. As the world indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso found out.The pacemaker Eveline Saalberg brought the field through 400m in a lightning quick 56.04, with the Briton a couple of strides back in second, before dropping out.At that point only Sekgodiso decided to go with the scorching pace that Hodgkinson was setting. And for a while it looked like she might give her something to think about as the pair went through 800m in 85sec.But in the last 200m the South African paid the price as her tank emptied and she slipped back from second to sixth, as Hodgkinson powered to victory.At one point there looked like being another British victory in the men’s 800m, with Max Burgin leading a high-quality field in the final 50 metres. However as the rain lashed down, the American Josh Hoey struck for home to win in 1:42.82, with the Olympic champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, taking second. Burgin was fourth in 1:43.44.skip past newsletter promotionThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionJosh Hoey of the United States beats the likes of Max Burgin to the men’s 800m. Photograph: Laurent Gilliéron/EPAHowever two other Britons, Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita, would not have been less enamoured with their performances in the women’s 200m.Asher-Smith made a decent start but she was soon run down by the American Brittany Brown who won in 22.23sec, with Favour Ofili second. However despite a fast start, Asher-Smith could only finish fifth in 22.64 while Neita was seventh in 22.73.“I am proud of how I ran today,” said Brown. “The weather was not easy but I executed well. Consistency has been my focus, and I expected to see the results here after the work I’ve put in.”Meanwhile in the men’s 100m, the Olympic champion, Noah Lyles, suffered another defeat as he was beaten by Jamaica’s Oblique Seville.In driving rain, Seville produced the performance of the night to win in 9.87sec, with Lyles second in 10.02. It was the American’s second defeat in four days, after losing to another Jamaican, Kishane Thompson, on Saturday.
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