The 39-year-old London 2012 gold medal winner clocked 23.46 seconds to take a huge 0.64 off the previous record time he set at last year's World Championships in Doha.

Whitehead, a 200m world champion in 2011 and 2013 as well as in 2015, had earlier shown form over the shorter distance by setting a 100m personal best.

He was denied what would have been another world record in the heats when he ran 12.06 in an illegal tailwind of 2.4 metres per second.

He then clocked a legal PB of 12.13 in the final, a time just 0.05 slower than the record mark held by Germany's Heinrich Popow.

Popow was another athlete to enjoy a successful meeting, with the home star leaping to a world record 6.72m in the men's T42 long jump. 

This added two centimetres to the previous best set by Denmark’s Daniel Wagner at last month’s European Championships in Grosseto, Italy.

Two other German athletes also broke world records.

Timor Huseni leapt 1.73m to add five centimetres to the high jump T45 mark, held for the last 12 years by compatriot Matthias Berg.

European champion Birgit Kober also improved her own shot put F36 world record set last month.

She managed a best mark of 11.32 to make a 12cm improvement.

South Africa’s Ilse Hayes twice broke the 12 second barrier in the women’s 100m, managing a best time of 11.97 in the T14 class.

There was South African disappointment in the T44 class when Germany's Flaxi Streng clocked 10.95 to edge London 2012 bronze medallist Arnu Fourie, who managed 11.01.