Hunt runs season's best to take third in Diamond League 200m

Amy Hunt: British sprinter runs season's best 200m time to take third in Diamond League Athletics meet in Brussels Amy Hunt runs 22.16 in Brussels, her best 200m time of the season; Sweden's pole vault world record-holder Armand Duplantis withdraws with back tightness, a week before the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest; Noah Lyles ends season early due to injury Last Updated: 04/09/26 10:42pm Great Britain's Amy Hunt ran a season's best in the women's 200m at the final Diamond League event of the year as she took third place in Brussels. Hunt's time of 22.16 was outstripped by race winner - and reigning Olympic 100m champion - Julien Alfred of St Lucia (21.79) and America's Kayla White (22.00). Another Brit, Success Eduan, came seventh of the eight runners after clocking 23.06 in Belgium. Hunt was the poster girl of the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham this summer with her four gold medals and bubbly personality winning her legions of fans. The 24-year-old topped the podium individually in the 100m and 200m in the Midlands, while she won gold as part of the women's and mixed 4x100m relays. Elsewhere in Brussels on Friday night, European 400m men's gold medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith, of Great Britain, finished fifth in his event. Duplantis in injury scare ahead of World Athletics Ultimate Championships Sweden's pole vault world record-holder Armand Duplantis was forced to pull out of the Diamond League final, withdrawing with back tightness a week before the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest. Duplantis' agent Daniel Wessfeldt told Swedish media: "He has felt something in his back that has spread down into his legs. He felt that he did not want to continue." The World Athletics Ultimate Championships is a new biennial event which sees world champions, Olympic champions, Diamond League winners and other leading athletes compete against each other for shares of a $10m (£7.87m) purse. Each individual champion will secure $150,000 (£110,865), the biggest winner's cheque in track and field history. Noah Lyles, the men's 100m champion at the 2024 Paris Olympics, will not take part, having ended his season early due to injury - but he still plans to travel to Hungary: "I am still going to be at Ultimate Championship. I still do have parties to throw and things to do behind the scenes to help support the athletes," Lyles said. "I still think that this is going to be an amazing competition, and I'm excited to watch that. And I'm even more excited to see what the future is going to bring."