THE first world record was broken at the new Olympic Stadium yesterday as Great Britain’s Hannah Cockroft picked up a bronze at the women’s 100m multi-classification final at the Visa London Disability Athletics Challenge, which forms part of the testing programme for London 2012.

Although she finished third, the 19-year-old’s time of 18.56 seconds saw her lead the way in the T34 class and break the world record.

“I just wasn’t expecting that,” she said. “What can you say? That’s history made.

“It just came out of nowhere. I raced on Sunday and wasn’t expecting much today.

“I was a bit apprehensive before the race and then that happens. I just don’t know what to say.”

Cockroft’s record-winning performance was made all the more impressive by her heavily-disrupted preparations for the race.

“We were running three or four hours behind schedule because of a coach crash on the way here,” she said.

“So I missed my call up, I missed my warm-up. I had to literally go straight on to the track.

“It’s not exactly the best preparation, so hopefully I can break the record by a lot more than that.

“I wasn’t prepared at all today but it was a great performance.”

Ireland’s Michael McKillop was the first male athlete to set a world record at the Olympic Stadium less than half an hour later.

The Antrim athlete won the multi-classification 1,500m final in three minutes 59.54 seconds, beating his previous world best T37 time by 15 seconds.

“It was incredible and enjoyable and an experience I wanted to get out of my system,” said the reigning 800m Paralympic gold medallist.