In a top quality race at the Wanda Diamond League in Eugene Matt Hudson-Smith broke the British 400m record running a time of 44.35.
The previous record was set by Iwan Thomas when he beat Mark Richardson and Jamie Baulch to win the British title in Birmingham in July 1997. Matt has now lowered this by one hundredth of a second.
The 400m was an outstanding race with the fastest time in the world this year of 43.60 set by the winner, Michael Norman of the USA who also set a Diamond League record. Following a number of setbacks earlier in his career, Matt, the European champion from 2018, has bounced back to form this year and he ran strongly to finish third in Eugene behind Kirani James, the Grenada athlete running 44.02, and Michael Norman.
President Katharine Merry who was commentating in the stadium was on hand to congratulate Matt and he is hoping to go quicker as the season progresses.