Omar McLeod said he is having fun again as he once more signalled his intent to successfully defend his Olympic title with a world-leading 13.01, to win the 110-metres hurdles at the Diamond League meeting in Florence, Italy.

Omar McLeod ran the second-fastest time in the world this year to win the 110m hurdles at the FDK Games in the Netherlands where Sifan Hassan, running before her countrymen and women, broke the 10,000 world record.

Veronica Campbell-Brown was second in the 100m at the 2021 USATF Open on Tuesday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was among several notable Caribbean athletes, who competed at the meet held at the Athletic Performance Ranch in Fort Worth, Texas.

 Jasmine Camacho-Quinn stormed to a 100m hurdles win in 12.32 (1.7m/s) to move to equal seventh on the world all-time list at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational in Gainesville, Florida, on Saturday.

Prior to her season opener one week before where she ran a windy 12.47, Camacho-Quinn's last hurdles race had been in 2019 and the Rio 2016 Olympian had started questioning whether her future lay in competing over the barriers.

But her perseverance is paying off and in Gainesville the two-time NCAA champion took 0.08 off her own Puerto Rican record, which had been set in 2018, to make a statement in Olympic year.

Behind her, British sisters Tiffany Porter and Cindy Sember both clocked 12.62, with Brittany Anderson finishing fourth in 12.91.

In the men's 110m hurdles, USA's world 60m hurdles record-holder Grant Holloway – who clocked a wind-assisted 13.04 (2.2m/s) a week earlier – ran a world-leading 13.07 (1.3m/s) for a dominant win. Trey Cunningham was second in a PB of 13.28.

World 400m champion Steven Gardiner went quickest over one lap, clocking 44.71 in his first 400m race since his world title win in Doha in 2019, as Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith was second in 45.53. Fastest in the women’s events was Jessica Beard with a time of 51.00.

Javianne Oliver won the women’s 100m from Olympic long jump champion Tianna Bartoletta – 11.12 to 11.16 (2.2m/s).

The men’s 100m saw the quickest time come in the university race as Jo'Vaughn Martin improved his PB from 10.40 to 9.94 (1.6m/s) to equal the world lead. Justin Gatlin went quickest in the 'Olympic Development' races with 9.98 (1.4m/s) ahead of Andre De Grasse with 9.99, Kenny Bednarek with 10.03 and Noah Lyles with 10.08.

Just one week after clocking 10.72 for 100m, Sha'Carri Richardson continued her fine form to run 22.11 (1.0m/s) in her 200m season debut on the first day of Tom Jones Memorial Invitational action on Friday (16).

It is the 21-year-old’s second quickest ever time for the distance behind her PB of 22.00 set in Florida last August and saw the world U20 record-holder win the heat by almost half a second ahead of Lynna Irby with 22.57.

World and Olympic medallist Blessing Okagbare was third in 22.66.

The time clocked by Richardson – who moved to sixth on the world all-time list with her 100m run the week before – is the second-fastest in the world at this early point of the season behind Shaunae Miller-Uibo’s 22.03 from earlier this month.

World 400m bronze medallist Fred Kerley went quickest in the men’s 200m heats, equalling his PB with 20.24 (0.9m/s) ahead of Jereem Richards with 20.30. Erriyon Knighton won another heat in 20.39 (0.5m/s).

World 400m hurdles silver medallist Sydney McLaughlin improved her 100m hurdles PB to 12.92 (0.2m/s) at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, on Friday (16).

With that result, the 21-year-old becomes the first woman to break 13.00 for the 100m hurdles, 23.00 for 200m and 53.00 for the 400m hurdles.

She was back in action just 40 minutes later and ran 51.16 in the 400m heats.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn was shocked at the time she ran to win the 200m at the Florida Invitational “Pro Addition” meeting on Saturday.