Monique Williams breaks own NZ 200m record

Monique Williams cruised through to the semi-finals of the 200m at the World Athletic Championships, after finishing second in her heat in a fresh New Zealand national record of 22.96s.

Williams drew a favourable lane five and on straightening up off the bend for the sprint down the straight was leading twice world champion and defending champion and twice Olympic Games silver medallist Allyson Felix of USA. Nearing the finish Williams eased up allowing Felix through for the win.

Williams shaved two hundredths of a second off her record set in Sydney in February.

The 23 year old was the eighth fastest qualifier from the heats.

Williams said that it felt really easy.

"I actually could have gone past her, but I didn't see any need to do that. I was surprised at the time, it's only going to look good for tomorrow," said a delighted Williams.

"I felt nobody behind me, when you can usually hear them breathing or footsteps, I didn't hear any of that, so I knew I was safely in that top three, but wanted to be in top two to get a good lane."

Williams said that her build up to the championships has been good.

"I thought I might have risked peaking too early in Serbia, but I knew I was in a middle phase of my training so I knew I was only going to get better from there, just with the right competition, nothing better than being at World Championships.

"Tomorrow my semi-final is my final, it's going to be a pretty tough job to make the final.

"I'm just going to go all out and try and break that record again. I should do and run like today and don't take my foot off the peddle.

"My start was not very good, that's something to improve. I run the bend really well, probably my strong bit, if I can do that again tomorrow I should be if not up there and then they might drag me through for a good time or even qualify for that final."

The semi-finals will be held at 5.50am Friday NZ time.