Novuna London Athletics Meet — Wanda Diamond League, 18 July 2026
Josh Kerr has become the fastest miler in history, clocking 3:42.66 at the London Diamond League to take 0.47 seconds off Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1999 world record, a mark that had stood for 27 years.
The Scot, targeting the record all season under his self-styled “Project 222”, was towed through 800m in 1:51.1 by pacemakers before running the final 700m alone in front of 60,000 at London Stadium. His 1500m split of 3:27.62 was inside his own British record. The 28-year-old said afterwards he knew the time was in him and that the noise over the final 110 metres left him unable to hear anything at all.
Yared Nuguse (USA) was a distant second in 3:45.69, with Brit Jake Heyward third in a personal best 3:46.73.
Jackson headlines other highlights
Cierra Jackson from USA produced the performance of the meet outside the mile with a final-round 71.72m to snatch victory from world and Olympic champion Valarie Sion and add 34 centimetres to Sandra Elkasević’s 2018 Diamond League record. The reigning NCAA champion sat third entering the last round before improving her personal best by almost four metres.
Admitting she was so nervous her hands had gone numb, Jackson said: “I just took a deep breath and threw and I watched it fly.”
Karsten Warholm returned to the stadium where he won the first of his three world titles in 2017 and stormed to a world-leading 46.61 in the 400m hurdles, breaking his own meeting record. It was the Norwegian’s first hurdles win of the season, delivered with daylight back to Germany’s Emil Agyekum, whose 47.45 was a national record.
Julien Alfred won the marquee 200m clash of Olympic champions, beating Gabby Thomas 21.66 to 21.81 into a slight headwind. The Saint Lucian’s third win in nine days followed her 21.51 in Monaco — which lifted her to third on the all-time 200m list — and a 10.87 100m victory in Budapest. Shaunae Miller-Uibo took third in 22.24.
Ja’Kobe Tharp became the first man in history to string together five consecutive sub-13 110m hurdles races, winning in 12.89 to take down a meeting record Aries Merritt had held since 2012. The 20-year-old American set his 12.75 world record in the NCAA semifinals just last month and hasn’t slowed since, adding wins in Budapest and now London. Kendry L. Menéndez was next home in a 13.01 personal best.
Keely Hodgkinson claimed her first win of the season in the day’s final event, holding off Femke Broeders-Bol 1:56.21 to 1:56.46 in the pair’s first ever 800m meeting.
In the men’s two-lap race, Brandon Miller timed his kick off the last bend perfectly to stun world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, slicing nearly a second from his PB with 1:42.19. Ireland’s Mark English also broke 1:43 for the first time in second, with Wanyonyi shuffled back to fourth.
There was plenty of Australian action, with victories to Jess Hull and Nicola Olyslagers setting them for their Commonwealth Games campaigns in Glasgow.
