Noah Loses To Seville, Femke's Affirmations - London DL Recap

^{July 19, 2025}

👋 Hey, Speedsters!

The 11th stop of the Wanda Diamond League finally arrived in London, and to witness it, fans packed the London Stadium to the rafters! 60,000 seats, all sold out. Hype? Well, Olympic champions, world record holders, and athletes boasting over 75 medals from Budapest 2023 and Paris 2024 were coming. Also, Noah Lyles was returning to the 100m for the first time since his Olympic gold. And since you fans love our race recaps, here's another one for you all!

Potential thunderstorm, sunshine, three Diamond plus races, we saw a lot go on. But in another historic move, the 1997 World Champion Britain’s men’s 4x400m relay team finally received their Gold medals today, post their elevation from Silver in November 2008 following the disqualification of team USA, Read More! Too much to catch up on, so hop in….

🤦 An Early Bummer

Once again, just like the many recent Diamond League stops, the London DL started with the usual bummer that frustrated fans. Broadcasters didn’t televise a few early events. For a sport that thrives on momentum, this late start killed the vibe early! The action kicked off around 12:15 local time. However, the global broadcast began only around 14:00. This meant online streamers missed out on live high-energy clashes like the 4x100m relays. And trust us, this was a HUGE blow!

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😮 Relay Drama

The men’s 4x100m opened the meet….crowd erupted at the gun, as lanes 5 and 6 brought the heat: Great Britain vs Jamaica. Jeremiah Azu started for GBR, while Rohan Watson started for Jamaica, followed by Louie Hinchliffe and Oblique Seville. But things changed on the anchor leg…

Kishane Thompson took Jamaican command! Zharnel Hughes chased hard, but he couldn’t match the 100m world leader’s raw speed. Thompson powered Jamaica to a season-best 37.80s, while GBR followed in 38.08s. He may have skipped the individual 100m, but watch how Thompson gave fans an early reason to roar and secured Jamaica’s spot at the Worlds.

6 minutes later, the women took over the track for 4x100m. And well, this one again was theatrical with lane 6 featuring the big-shot British sprinters, and lane 7, the Jamaicans. Dina Asher-Smith started for GBR. It was the fastest 200m woman alive, Shericka Jackson, who gave the Jamaicans a head start. But once again, the anchor leg made all the difference....

Tina Clayton handed the baton to anchor Briana Williams, giving Jamaica a slight edge. But Daryll Neita had other plans. She stormed past on the anchor leg to secure a 41.69s world lead for Britain. The Jamaicans had to settle for second place in 42.50s. This one was dramatic, watch it for yourself! The French finished third, whereas the Irish stood in Fourth. But wait…Irish registered national record!

🙌 Record Time

In one of the early, untelevised events, history was made. After a quiet start, Mykolas Alekna, the world record holder, launched the discus straight to the moon in the third round and stunned the crowd....No, it’s not an exaggeration! He launched the discus 71.70m, smashing the Diamond League record and beating Kristjan Ceh’s 2022 mark by nearly half a metre, while Ceh came second....Watch that incredible moment here!

🌟 Fan Favorite

The virtual broadcast opened with the women’s 400m hurdles, and the conditions weren’t ideal....Cold, rain, and wet tracks. Femke Bol, fan favorite, the meet and DL record holder, and world leader in the event, lined up in lane 6, started aggressively.... 

By the second hurdle, she was neck-and-neck with Andrenette Knight, but by 37 seconds in, Bol took control and cruised to her third London DL win in 52.10s. Watch how! For the first time this season, she failed to improve her timing in the event. Yes, this was not her best, Read More, but as the commentators mentioned, the weather played the spoiler..... USA’s Jasmine Jones took second in 53.18, while Knight came third in 53.79.

Next up was, men’s 800m! As soon as the event began, commentators said the 13-year-old world record was on watch, but instead, a 7-year-old meet record went down.... Once again, all eyes were on Lane, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the world leader who had set a meet record in Monaco. However, for the first 49.2 seconds, the scene looked completely different…

Patryk Sieradzki was leading with Wanyonyi following behind! Suddenly, Sieradzki pulled up and did not finish the race, leaving everybody puzzled. Then Marco Arop surged and seized control. For a moment, the race looked locked…

But he left “the door opened on the inside lane, and Wanyonyi took it.” Wanyonyi overtook in the final meters to win in 1:42.00, breaking Emmanuel Korir’s meet record..... Watch Wanyonyi's last-minute dramatic finish here!

✨ Home Soil Magic

Then came the women's 800m! As the athletes lined up, the crowd felt one major absence: Keely Hodgkinson. Last year, she dominated the event, but a torn hamstring in February sidelined her from the home turf. However, British hopes were still alive! After all, there were three English Runners in the lineup…Lisanne De Witte got a DNF! But, Jemma Reekie took over in the bell lap....However, it was Georgia Hunter Bell who finally came in and took gold in the home stretch! Her time? 1:56.74!

Just seconds after the broadcast cut to Sir Mo Farah in the stands, the men’s 400m was underway, and it quickly turned into one of the night’s biggest surprises. On his home track, Matthew Hudson-Smith, the Prefontaine winner for the first 250m, was trailing Reece Holder. But as the race closed, Charles Dobson, another British Runner, "came out of nowhere..." and beat Hudson-Smith. Dobson sat on the track, jaw dropped in disbelief, after clocking 44.14, ahead of Hudson-Smith’s 44.27.

🏆The Record Run

“Gudaf Tsegay is not interested in the 4:10 pace that is set here...” echoed the commentary box as the Ethiopian blasted off from the gun in the women’s Mile. Australia’s Jessica Hull tucked in behind her, but Tsegay didn’t waver, leading with complete authority. She stopped the clock at 4:11.88, the second-fastest time in history, only behind Faith Kipyegon’s 4:07.64. She also shattered Sifan Hassan’s 7-year-old meet record by nearly three seconds, slashed six seconds off the 2025 world lead, and rewrote the Ethiopian national record books. Three records. One run. Watch here!

😲 The Most Watched

It was now time for THE race of the night. “It’s a quality line-up,” the commentator noted, and they weren’t kidding. All eyes were on lanes 4 through 7: Oblique Seville, Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo, and Akani Simbine. At the gun, Seville exploded out of the blocks with a blazing 0.133 reaction time and crossed the line in 9.86s! He topped his win with a finger-on-the-lips celebration!

Lyles followed in 10.00, his fastest of the season, while Zharnel Hughes claimed third. Whereas, Akani Simbine got handed his first 100m defeat of the year as he finished fifth in 10.11 and Letsile Tebogo placed seventh in 10.12....

As the race finished, Lyles sportingly gave Seville a clap but he looked shellshocked. The reigning Olympic champion had a 0.162 reaction time, the second slowest in the field....And that's how Oblique Seville, the only man to beat Lyles since 2023, did it again in 2025, watch the EPIC moment here!

Next up, under cloudy skies and battling a –0.6 m/s headwind, the women’s 200m lined up. Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita drew loud cheers from the home crowd, but lane 7’s reigning Olympic champion, Julien Alfred, had other plans.

Despite the slowest reaction, 0.155s, Alfred powered through the curve and flew down the straight to stop the clock at 21.71, set exactly here in London last year. Not only that, she even broke Gabby Thomas’ meet record and lowered her own world lead by 0.17s. Watch Alfred, as she just keeps getting better.....while Asher-Smith finished second in 22.25s, and Amy Hunt finished third in 22.31s.

🎖️ The FINALE

As the men’s 1500m lined up, four of Britain’s seven fastest milers were in the field—including reigning world champion Josh Kerr, cool as ever in his trademark shades. But an 18-year-old from Kenya came and spoiled the British Party. Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech clocked 3:28:82, a new meet record, while Kerr followed second in 3:29:37s. Kerr did chase, even clocking his season best him but could not close the gap. Here's how a teen beat the world champion, Kerr!

That was it for London folks, see you at the next Diamond League stop with another crazy roundup!

That’s it for today, folks! We’ll look to knock on your inbox soon with more interesting stories!