Bol refreshes world record, Kerr thrills home crowd at world indoors

Dutch runner Femke Bol shattered her own world indoor 400 meters record at the world indoor athletics championships in Glasgow on Saturday, clocking 49.17 seconds to slice 0.07 off of her previous best result from two weeks ago at the Dutch national championships.

"It was such a strong race; I knew I had to go out fast. My coach said to me, 'You can run faster,' but to be honest, I just wanted to win," said Bol, a gold medalist in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay at the outdoor world championships last year in Budapest.

"This is great because I've not done hurdles for four weeks, and it gives me confidence. (But) I am missing the hurdles," she added. "It is just great to race and this competition and the atmosphere has been amazing."

Meanwhile, Britain's Josh Kerr steamrolled to victory in the men's 3,000 meters in front of a home crowd and high-fived fans sitting trackside during an exuberant victory lap, clocking 7 minutes and 42.98 seconds.

"I think I burned more energy celebrating than I did in the race," said Kerr, who chose to race the 3,000 over the 1,500 to work on his strength.

"These competitions are so important. I've come to championships before not ready to take a real swing at it, and I feel like I let the UK audience down a little bit in the way that I've performed.

"So this was really important for me to come here, ready to go and really execute."

In the men's long jump, Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece edged Italian teenager Mattia Furlani to retain his title. Tentoglou, 25, jumped to 8.22m in his first attempt, the same as 19-year-old Furlani. But the Greek's second-best result of 8.15m was 0.05m better than Furlani's. Carey McLeod from Jamaica finished third in 8.21m. The 2022 world champion, Wang Jianan of China, had to settle for ninth place with 7.74m.

Local Molly Caudery was crowned in the women's pole jump with a height of 4.80m.

In the men's 400m, Alexander Doom surpassed Norwegian ace Karsten Warholm in the final meters to win with a new Belgian national record of 45.25 seconds.

American Grant Holloway retained the men's 60m hurdle title in 7.29 seconds. Julien Alfred from Saint Lucia ran a world-leading time of 6.98 seconds to win the women's 60m. World champion Hugues Zango of Burkina Faso grabbed the men's triple jump gold with 17.53m.

(With input from Xinhua)