Halifax star Max Burgin books World Championships spot with storming victory

The 20-year-old produced a thoroughly dominant display at the Manchester Regional Arena to record a stadium record time of 1:44.64 and beat 2020 champion Daniel Rowden, who followed in second, and 2015 champion Kyle Langford, in third.

Burgin is in red hot form having registered the fastest 800m time of the year, 1:43:52 at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland earlier this month, to put him fourth in the UK's all-time rankings behind Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott.

An elated Burgin said: “I am delighted with that race today. Going into today, I was the fastest so there was a little bit more of expectation on me to qualify. So, I am delighted to have come out and secured the win.

“The conditions were tough so running from the front isn’t necessarily the best as you feel the wind more. It is quite normal for me to feel sick straight afterwards - it is a side effect of the effort but nothing to worry about.

“I have never run in a senior major championships so it will be a new experience. I have the world lead at the moment, so I am in a good place. With the Commonwealths and the Europeans, I have plenty of opportunities to get used to championship running with the three rounds and so on.”