Australian 100m record holder Patrick Johnson sped to a new personal best over 200m at the MAI-Galan meeting in Malmo, Sweden.

In a good night for the Australian’s Johnson scored a winning double, warming up for his 200m win with victory over 100m.

National hurdles champion Sally McLellan and Commonwealth champion Bronwyn Thompson also scored wins.

Johnson, a world championships 200m finalist in Helsinki last year, produced a slick 20.35 seconds (+1.0mps) to shave .14 from his lifetime best of 20.49 set at this year’s Telstra Selection Trials in Sydney.

He moves from 14th to sixth on the Australian all-time list – in pursuit of Peter Norman’s 37-year-old Australian record of 20.06 set at the Mexico Olympic Games in 1968.

The time makes Johnson the fastest of the current crop of Australian sprinters, moving past Daniel Batman (20.44), Matt Shirvington (20.45) and Adam Miller (20.47) on the all-time list. He also goes past Darren Clark (20.49) and Fred Martin (20.48).

Earlier in the program, Johnson warmed up for his 200m with victory in the 100m in 10.34 seconds. His next competiton will be in Rieti, Italy, on Sunday.

Commonwealth Games 100m finalist Sally McLellan opened her European campaign with a victory in the 100m hurdles in 13.39 and third place in the 100m in 11.62.

Bronwyn Thompson continued her good form ahead of the World Athletics Final and World Cup in September with a win in the long jump.

In the wet conditions, Thompson took only four of her six jumps to record her winning leap of 6.57m.

In the men’s pole vault, IAAF World Tour leader Paul Burgess had a setback after competing in Zurich last Friday, his poles went missing. Treating Malmo as an opportunity to work on his technique ahead of the World Athletics Final, he cleared 5.53m in the difficult conditions to finish second to American Toby Stevenson.

In other results, Caitlin Willis finished second in the 400m in 55.50, and national champion Nick Bromley finished 9th in the 800m in 1:51.00.

In other news, Commonwealth Games pole vault champion Kym Howe didn’t compete in Monaco on Sunday after not fully recovering from a chest infection. She is currently 5th on the World Tour rankings with the top seven automatically qualifying for the final. She will compete in the IAAF Golden League meeting in Brussels on Friday, which is the last scoring opportunity for the women’s pole vaulters ahead of the world Athletics Final in Stuttgart.

Athletics Australia