World Indoor Tour Final: Keely Hodgkinson, Dina Asher-Smith & Neil Gourley break British records

Britain's Keely Hodgkinson, Dina Asher-Smith and Neil Gourley set new national records at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham.

Hodgkinson, 20, the Olympic 800m silver medallist, shaved two hundredths of a second off her own record.

Asher-Smith, 27, lowered her 60m record in qualifying before beating team-mate Daryll Neita in a high-quality final.

Gourley, 28, beat Josh Kerr's national 1500m mark after storming past his team-mate in the final lap.

Laura Muir claimed a fourth British win of the day in the women's 1,000m, but fell well short of her goal to break Maria Mutola's long-standing world record.

The home crowd were given plenty to cheer, however, with world stars Grant Holloway, Jereem Richards and Gudaf Tsegay also claiming notable wins in the final of seven World Indoor Tour events.

• Full results [external site]

• Watch the World Indoor Tour final on BBC iPlayer

For Hodgkinson and Gourley, victories set them up perfectly for the European Indoor Championships, which take place in Istanbul from 2-5 March.

Asher-Smith, the 2019 world 200m champion, will now concentrate on her preparations for the outdoor season.

The Briton maintained her fine recent form, clocking 7.03 seconds in the second 60m heat to shave another hundredth off the record she set in Germany in January.

Asher-Smith went on to win the final comfortably, in 7.05, one tenth of a second faster than Neita in second place. The United States' Destiny Smith-Barnett was third and Jamaica's Shericka Jackson, the reigning world outdoor 200m champion, was fourth.

Hodgkinson claimed her third win in three races to take the overall World Tour title for the women's 800m, which guarantees her entry into the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

The Leigh-based athlete, who will go to Istanbul as defending European champion, came home 25m clear of the field to win in 1:57.18.

Britain's Gourley also laid down a marker before the Europeans after knocking 0.38 off the British record time set by Kerr in Boston last year.

The Scot's winning time of 3:32.48 was the world's second-fastest time indoors this year. Kerr, who has chosen not to compete in the Europeans, led until the final lap but faded badly to finish fifth.

Muir's attempt at beating Mutola's world record time of 2:30.94 in the women's 1,000m, which was set in 1999, faltered in the final few laps as the 29-year-old finished in 2:34.53.

Ethiopia's world indoor 1500m champion Tsegay, who holds the world record at that distance, got closer to setting a new world best time in the women's 3,000m.

The 26-year-old, who is also the reigning world 5,000m champion, was well ahead of the pace at the halfway mark but eventually missed out by just nine hundredths of a second, finishing in 8:16.69.

United States' Holloway produced the fastest time in the world this year - 7.35 - to win the men's 60m hurdles. The American beat compatriot Daniel Roberts by 0.12, clocking a time that was just six hundredths off his own world record.

And Richards, Trinidad & Tobago's reigning world indoor 400m champion, held off a charge from the United States' Vernon Norwood to win by 0.18 in 45.74. Ireland's Jack Rafferty was third in 46.66.

What they said

"It was a really challenging year for me in 2022 but - and I know this sounds crazy - it was not really physical. It was more as a human being," said Asher-Smith, who lost her grandmother, Sislyn, before the 2022 World Championships in Eugene.

"We're all humans, we all have the ups and downs of adult life and that's just it really. So all I'm hoping for now is easy - no major life events for like the next two years and that'll be great.

"But I'm happy and I'm just really excited for the outdoors. I'm really excited to go into training. I've got a few days off now then we're going to get ready for 100m and 200m."

Muir, who stated that breaking Mutola's 1,000m indoor record was one of her main targets for 2023, said: "I was going to go for it regardless and I feel like I'm in the shape to run the sort of time, it's getting that perfect and it's so hard to get right."

Hodgkinson also revealed frustration at not setting a new world record in the women's 800m: "I've had time to calm down. It's a British record so I can't complain, but you know when you are capable of so much more. I'm a bit gutted. I felt I was on pace but in the last 50m it got away from me."

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