American sprinting star Noah Lyles made a mark of his own by surpassing one of the greatest runners in history.
The 26-year-old Florida native, who is the fastest 200m sprinter in the world this year, clocked a 19.47 second time at the Diamond League meet in London on Sunday.
In doing so, Lyles broke a record set by Usain Bolt for the most 200m sprints run in under 20 seconds. This is the 35th time Lyles has accomplished that feat.
Lyles snapped his own fastest time this season by two-tenths as the home crowd cheered on Zharnel Hughes.
The American now heads to the World Championships in Budapest as the reigning gold medal winner in this event.
Hughes smashed the 30-year-old British 200m record by clocking 19.73 seconds in front of a sell-out crowd at the London Diamond League.
The 28-year-old shaved 0.21 seconds off the previous mark of 19.94, set by John Regis at the World Championships in 1993, in finishing third at London Stadium.
His latest feat was witnessed by around 50,000 spectators and comes just a month after he broke Linford Christie’s 100m record when he ran 9.83 seconds in New York.
Hughes claimed he had earlier forecasted his record-breaking time.
‘I did it again – I predicted it,’ he said. ‘I wrote down that exact time this morning, at about 9.30am.
‘I wanted to get the British record here on home soil and I did it.
‘I don’t care about winning as long as I execute the time that my coach wanted and get the British record.’
