By Nick Butler

Hannah Cockcroft emphatically continued the form she showed at London 2012 and throughout the 2013 season ©Getty ImagesGreat Britain's Hannah Cockroft broke her own 200 metres T34 world record by nearly four tenths of a second with a stunning performance on the opening day of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athletics Grand Prix in Nottwil, Switzerland.


Benefiting from a strong, but legal, tailwind of 1.9 metres per second, the 21-year-old clocked 30.86sec to lower her previous best of 31.23 which she set in Indianapolis in June 2012, shortly before she won two gold medals on home turf at London 2012.

On this occasion Cockroft overcame five of the same participants she beat in the 200m Paralympic final, with Rosemary Little of Australia finishing two seconds behind in second place, while Amy Siemons of the Netherlands came third.

"It was great to post such a fast time in my first IPC Athletics Grand Prix of the season," the Briton, who also won double gold at both the 2011 and 2013 IPC World Championships, said afterwards.

"I'm delighted with the record, although I know I can go faster looking at my training times.

"This shows I'm in great form ahead of August's European Championships [in Swansea] hopefully I can lower the record again."

It was not all celebration for Britain, though, as in one of the most anticipated races of the day four-time London 2012 champion David Weir was edged out by Switzerland's Marcel Hug in the 10,000m T54 category. 

Marcel Hug continued his recent winning streak over David Weir which also saw him win the London Marathon ©Getty ImagesMarcel Hug continued his recent winning streak over David Weir which also saw him win the London Marathon ©Getty Images





Halfway through the race, the two rivals broke away from the rest of the field together with Japan's Masayuki Higuchi, but with 200m to go, the home star broke clear to repeat his triumph at the London Marathon last month and win in a time of 21min 16.21sec, with Weir 0.1 behind.

The pair areu due clash twice more tomorrow over the shorter distances of 800m and 1500m.

Elsewhere, on a day packed with 200m finals, there was nearly another world record as Brent Lakotos of Canada described his T53 performance as "almost perfect" as he finished just 0.03 seconds outside of American Chris Waddell's 10 year-old world record of 25.24.

There were also victories for Finland's Henry Manni in the T34 category and the Netherlands' world champion Kenny van Weeghel in the T54 division.

The most emotional winner of the day was Belgium's Marieke Vervoort, who won the women's T52 category was a time of 35.98 after spending four months in hospital following a crash at last year's World Championships in Lyon.

"I am so happy, it's overwhelming to be here competing again," she said.

"The doctors told me I would never reach the top again because I was so badly injured."

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May 2014: London 2012 hero Weir has "hunger back" to take on Swiss rival Hug
June 2013: Cockcroft relishing home crowd support at Birmingham IPC Grand Prix Final