Harry Aikines-Aryeetey wins 100m title at British Athletics Championships

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey won the men’s 100 metre title at the Muller British Athletics Championships on Friday to bring his long wait to an end.

Posting a season’s best time of 10.35 seconds at Manchester Regional Arena, the 32-year-old became British champion for the first time at the 12th attempt.

Ojie Edoburun, the 2019 winner, came second in 10.43 and Tommy Ramadan third in 10.44, with Andrew Robertson ending up fourth after a fast start.

Imani Lansiquot surged to victory in the women’s 100m race with a time of 11.26 seconds, crossing ahead of Kristal Awuah and Amy Hunt.

Last year’s champion Dina Asher-Smith is among a number of big names not involved in the meet, along with Mo Farah and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, both of whom were in Diamond League action in Brussels on Friday.

The event, taking place in Manchester for the first time since 2007, had originally been scheduled for June and was set to double as trials for the Tokyo Olympics before the Games were postponed for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jazmin Sawyers triumphed in the long-jump, with Manchester’s defending champion Abigail Irozuru coming second.

European and Commonwealth silver-medallist Sawyers jumped a season’s best 6.69m as she reclaimed a title she also won in 2016.

Cindy Ofili, who came fourth in the 100m hurdles at the Rio 2016 Olympics, retained her British title, clocking 13.16 seconds as she finished four hundredths of a second ahead of 17-year-old Lucy-Jane Matthews.

Harry Coppell set a new British record of 5.85m as he retained the pole vault title, while the women’s 5000m was won by Jessica Judd.

Hannah Cockroft triumphed in the 400m wheelchair race, posting a time of 1:00.19, and fellow Paralympic champion Sophie Hahn won the 100m ambulant race. This is the first year the championships has included para events.