Croydon Harriers Martyn Rooney felt satisfied with his first race of the season at Birmingham Grand Prix IAAF Diamond League meeting on Sunday.

The 28-year-old, who last year claimed the men’s European 400m title, began his road to the IAAF World Championships in Beijing by clocking 33.01 seconds to finish a lowly seventh place in a seldom contested 300m event at Alexander stadium.

South Africa’s 2014 Commonwealth Games 400m silver medallist Wayde Van Niekerk dominated proceedings with a storming 31.63secs victory, Chris Brown from Bahamas took second in 31.99secs while Britain’s Delano Williams was third in 32.14secs.

“It was fun,” said Crystal Palace fan Rooney,.

“It was nice to run in front of the home crowd and get the atmosphere, it was a good spectacle.

“I was hoping to run a bit quicker, but I never ran in a straight line so it was very different to like driving round the bend.

“The last time I started down the back straight was the 1,500m [at the Medway meeting in 2005] so it was a bit of a step down, but it was fun.”

“I was happy with the time.

“The way I was running with the wind on the back straight, that’s probably where I am right at the moment.”

He added: “I’ve got two races at the end of the week, Oslo and Rabat, so hopefully with a bit of rhythm I’ll be a lot quicker.”