Jeremiah Azu broke the 10 second-barrier for the first time in wind legal conditions at the True Athletes Classic in Leverkusen, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, on Saturday (25) afternoon.
In the last race of the day, Azu stopped the clock at 9.97 (+1.4) for a notable victory on the road to the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships where the Brit will be looking to return to the rostrum after winning 100m bronze in Munich 2022.
And based on current form, Azu will be looking to trade up that bronze medal from two years ago as he becomes the first European sprinter to break the 10 second-barrier in the 100m in 2024.
From a historic standpoint, Azu moves to equal eighth on the British all-time list alongside Dwain Chambers and Adam Gemili and he also becomes the first Welsh athlete in history to run under the 10 second-barrier.
Azu won by a clear margin from Germans Owen Ansah (10.11) and Robin Ganter (10.13) although the second fastest time across the two finals came from Yannick Wolf who won the B final in a lifetime best of 10.08.
Other highlights included Torben Blech clearing 5.82m for victory in the pole vault and Rebekka Haase winning the 100m in 11.17 having clocked 11.09 in the heats.
Moser clears 4.71m and Simonelli with an Italian record in Nancy
Former European indoor champion Angelica Moser from Switzerland continued her excellent form in the build-up to Roma 2024 with a 4.71m clearance in the pole vault at the Meeting de Stanislas in Nancy, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting, on Saturday (25) evening.
Another athlete on an upward swing towards Roma 2024 is world indoor 60m hurdles silver medallist Lorenzo Simonelli who won the 110m hurdles in an Italian record of 13.28 ahead of Poland’s Damian Czykier (13.38) and 2016 Olympic champion Omar McLeod (13.45).
It was also a good night for the French middle distance contingent on display with Gabriel Tual pipping Elliot Giles in the 800m, 1:44.43 to 1:44.46, while Jimmy Gressier stepped down in distance to win the 1500m in 3:36.50 ahead of Bastien Augusto (3:36.52) and Italy’s Ossama Meslak (3:36.59). Agathe Guillemot made a big improvement to win the women’s 1500m in a lifetime best of 4:02.05.
And there was another breakthrough performance in the hammer from Yann Chaussinand who threw a lifetime best of 79.88m to defeat a field including the great Polish throwers Wojciech Nowicki (76.31m) and Pawel Fajdek (75.08m) who finished second and fourth respectively.
Steven Mills for European Athletics