Lawrence Clarke admitted he was disappointed with his performance in the Sainsbury’s Birmingham Grand Prix yesterday, despite his fastest time of the season, writes STUART WEIR.

Clarke, from Christmas Common, near Watlington, came fifth in the 110m hurdles in 13.53 seconds as Cuba's Orlando Ortega won in 13.20.

Although it was a season’s best, Clarke, who only finished his Master’s dissertation on Tuesday, said he had found it hard to be fully focused on running during the last two weeks.

“I was disappointed with the time,” he said. “When you are going from training straight into the library, it is not the ideal recovery strategy.

Sport

“These guys in the Diamond League do not hang about. You get to hurdle two and suddenly you realize that they are ahead of you.”

Meanwhile, Adam Gemili was taken off the track in a wheelchair moments after becoming the sixth British man to break the ten-second barrier in a dramatic 100m final.

Gemili crashed over the line behind winner Marvin Bracy and dropped to the floor where he was being treated by paramedics as confirmation of his personal best flashed on the scoreboard.

Olympic champion Greg Rutherford marked his return from injury by winning the men’s long jump with a season best leap of 8.35m.

Mo Farah withdrew from the meeting after saying he was “emotionally and physically drained”.

The double Olympic champion wants “to go back to the US and seek answers” after a “stressful week” that saw a BBC investigation allege his coach Alberto Salazar had been involved in doping.