European 100m bronze medallist Romell Glave won a highly competitive men's 100m final and the 26-year-old finally achieved his first wind legal sub-10 second clocking on the first day of the UK Championships in Birmingham on Saturday (20).
Glave stopped the clock at 9.98, holding off a late charge from Zharnel Hughes who recovered from a poor start to take second in a season’s best of 10.01, reeling in Louie Hinchliffe and European indoor champion Jeremiah Azu who both clocked 10.03 to finish third and fourth respectively.
With the European Athletics Championships which take place on this same track just under two months away, Glave also ties the European lead of 9.98 which was set by Germany's Owen Ansah earlier this month. He becomes just the third European sprinter to break the 10 second-barrier this year with two-time reigning champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs from Italy having also clocked 9.99 this year.
Glave is no stranger to breaking the 10 second-barrier but all of his six sub-10 second performances prior to this evening had frustratingly been wind-aided, including a recent 9.88 clocking in Savona where Glave defeated Jacobs in the process.
World 200m silver medallist Amy Hunt began her quest for a sprint double with a commanding victory in the women’s 100m.
Hunt ran down Dina Asher-Smith who was fastest out of the blocks and strode away for victory in 11.01 ahead of Asher-Smith who improved her season’s best to 11.13 with 19-year-old European U20 silver medallist Mabel Akande setting a big lifetime best of 11.18 in third.
Hunt's winning time of 11.01 was the second fastest wind-legal time of her career, bettered only by her recently set lifetime best of 10.97 from the Stockholm Diamond League.
Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson progressed through to the women’s 400m final with a 51.62 clocking in her heat although the fastest qualifier was Amber Anning with 50.74.
Matthew Hudson-Smith was the fastest qualifier in the men’s 400m heats with 45.24.
Championship records for Okoye, Thorner and Sey
Lawrence Okoye smashed his championship record in the discus, one of three championship records to fall on the first day.
Okoye launched the discus out to 68.81m in the second round to extend his own championship record which previously stood at 65.93m.
This was also Okoye’s third longest throw of his career, only bettered by two performances achieved in favourable wind conditions in Ramona: 70.76m in 2025 and 71.88m in 2026.
Okoye will be targeting his second European Athletics Championships medal in Birmingham in August. He won an emotional bronze medal in a competition won by Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna in Munich four years ago, becoming the first Brit to win a medal in the event in championship history.
In the 3000m steeplechase, 2026 European leader Elise Thorner won in a gun-to-tape 9:16.95, breaking her own championship record of 9:22.05 which she set on this track last year.
With the European Athletics Championships less than two months away, Thorner is the only European to have broken the 9:10-barrier this year with a 9:07.39 clocking which makes her the fastest European by over six seconds.
Marcia Sey sped to the 100m hurdles title, also in a championship record and lifetime best of 12.65.
The 24-year-old improved her lifetime best from 12.77 and also shaved 0.03 from 2014 European champion Tiffany Porter’s championship record which was set in 2013.
Other highlights included Joel Clarke-Khan winning the high jump with 2.27m and Stephen McKenzie winning the long jump title with 8.15m from Archie Yeo with 8.06m, the first time both athletes have broken the eight metre-barrier in their respective careers.