Hodgkinson wins in London after 'tough couple of weeks'

Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson made a return to winning ways at the London Diamond League after what she admitted had been "a tough couple of weeks".

Hodgkinson, 24, had set her sights on breaking the women's 800m world record - which has stood for 43 years - in London, where on Saturday fellow Briton Josh Kerr ran the fastest mile in history.

That ambition followed a superb indoor campaign during which she captured her first world indoor title and the 24-year women's indoor 800m world record.

But her outdoor season has not begun as smoothly, with back-to-back second-place finishes at Diamond League events in Stockholm and Eugene - despite improving her British record at the former, and suffering a bad fall in the lead up to the latter.

Prioritising victory on home soil following those experiences, in front of a sellout crowd of 60,000 inside London Stadium, Hodgkinson controlled the race throughout and finished strongly to hold off Dutch athlete Femke Broeders-Bol in a time of one minute 56.21 seconds.

"Mixed emotions - but I think I'm going to take the positives that it's been a tough couple of weeks, not everything always your way and goes to plan," Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.

"The only reason I came here today was because I wanted to run in front of a home crowd, so I'm happy to get that out the way, go to the European Championships next and we just build on from here."

Reflecting on her testing start to the outdoor season, she added: "It's a life skill you can take. Life is sometimes unfair and doesn't go the way you want or how you imagined it.

"It's how you deal with it. I still dream big but for now, I'm just going to stay in the present."

Kerr, speaking alongside Hodgkinson after breaking Hicham El Guerrouj's 27-year mile record, said his British team-mate's ability to handle the pressure of competing around the world and then win in front of her home crowd was "incredible".

"Even if you're not happy with today - I don't know how - to be able to do that at your age and win consistently - we are so lucky to have athletes consistently showing up, and hopefully we can inspire the next generation to do the same," Kerr said.

Matthew Hudson-Smith had to settle for second in the men's 400m behind Rai Benjamin, the Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion.

American Benjamin held off his rivals in a personal best 44.05 seconds, ahead of Olympic and world 400m silver medallist Hudson-Smith in 44.18.

Max Burgin (1:43:30) finished third in a men's 800m race which began at world record pace, as requested by Olympic and world champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi.

Kenya's Wanyonyi, beaten by Burgin at the Monaco Diamond League in May, broke the rarely contested men's 1,000m record in Monaco last week.

Both athletes followed the pacemaker - tasked with keeping them on course for David Rudisha's 2012 time of 1:40.91 - but faded in the closing stages, as American Brandon Miller took victory ahead of Ireland's Mark English in 1:42.19.

Dina Asher-Smith was the first Briton across the line in the women's 200m, as St Lucia's Olympic 100m champion Julian Alfred won in 21.66 seconds - ahead of American Gabby Thomas, the Olympic champion in that event.

Asher-Smith, who had earlier competed in the women's 4x100m relay, finished fourth in 22.88, behind Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, with Amy Hunt (22.30) and Success Eduan (22.53) following in fifth and sixth respectively.

"I was hoping for 21 seconds today, but it wasn't to be today. I know I am in good shape and deep in training," said Asher-Smith, who will seek to become the most successful athlete in European Championship history next month.

Hannah Nuttall ran a personal best 8:26.48 for fourth in a women's 3,000m race won by Australian Jessica Hull (8:24.69).

In the men's 100m, Nigeria's Kanyinsola Ajayi stunned Jamaica's world champion Oblique Seville with a time of 9.84 seconds, as Briton Romell Glave finished third in a personal best 9.97.

There was an injury concern for Swedish pole vault star Armand Duplantis, who withdrew from the men's pole vault mid-competition after appearing to struggle with a thigh issue.

Sweden's two-time Olympic champion, whoimproved his pole vault world record for the 15th time with a jump of 6.31 metres in March, decided not to take any risk before next month's European Championships after he had cleared 5.95m - which was still enough for second place.

"It wasn't my best day, I need to go back, reassess and maybe get a scan. I am sorry to the fans for not putting a good performance together," Duplantis said.