The following wind at the Don Valley Stadium was a legal 1.2 metres per second and most importantly the time gets Hession under the 'A' qualifying standard of 20.59 for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

For the past year the Athenry man has been threatening to dip under Brizzel's best of 20.54, which he set in South Africa in March 2000.

Hession lowered his 200m personal best to 20.56 last August and was actually inside Brizzel's mark at a Golden League meeting in Oslo last month but his run did not count due to a wind speed of 2.5 metres per second.

A wind reading of +4.7 m/s also kept his 20.43 run at this month's Cork City Sports event out of the record books.

Showing excellent form ahead of next weekend's National Championships and next month's Worlds in Osaka, Hession also broke his own Irish 100m record by timing 10.18 secs at the European Cup in Vaasa on June 23.

Indeed, this is the third distance at which the 24-year-old has claimed a new Irish record this year - he lowered his own 60m indoor record to 6.61 secs in Birmingham in March.

Currently ranked 29th in the world, Hession's record-breaking form further endorses his decision to take a break from his medical studies - he has completed four years of his degree at NUI Galway - in order to train full-time for the World Championships and Olympics.