Kayla White edges Amy Hunt in 200m at Lausanne Diamond League

Kayla White beat Amy Hunt in the women’s 200m at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday, winning in 22.18sec while Hunt was second in 22.32 after a photo-finish with Nigeria’s Favour Ofili. Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson pulled up with 70m of the race to run.

Britain’s Amy Hunt returned to competition after winning a historic four golds at the recent European Athletics Championships. On the track in Lausanne she said she had been "tired before the race and my pre-competition felt pretty stiff". Hunt held off Favour Ofili in the photo finish to secure second place.

Switzerland’s Audrey Werro recorded a meet best to win the women’s 800m on home soil but fell well short of the world record. The newly crowned European champion is the third fastest ever in the women’s two-lap race. Werro is aiming to break the 1min 53.28sec run by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1983. That mark remains the oldest world record in track and field and is highly contested because it was set during a period when systemic doping of athletes was prevalent; Kratochvilova, however, never failed a doping test.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the world and Olympic champion, won the men’s 800m in 1:42.19, finishing ahead of Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati, the two-time world silver medallist who won bronze at the Paris Games. Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo dominated the men’s 200m, taking victory in 19.87. In the triple jump Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo won with 17.44m while Italy’s Andy Díaz Hernández, who had jumped 18.15m to win gold at the Euros, managed 17.20m for third in Lausanne.

There were meeting records for the American Masai Russell in the 100m hurdles with 12.27 and for his teammate Rai Benjamin in the 400m hurdles with 46.67. Benjamin, who has been focused on the 400m flat this season, lowered the meeting standard and beat Edwin Moses’ mark of 47.14 from 1981.

Werro, having posted a meet best in front of the home crowd, is aiming specifically to break the 1min 53.28sec world record set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.