Dwight Thomas - AP

WORLD Championships 110 metres hurdles finalist Dwight Thomas was not completely satisfied despite improving on his own national record earlier this week.

Thomas clocked 13.15 seconds to finish as runner-up to the United States' Aries Merritt at the Bislett Diamond League in Oslo, shaving one-hundredth of a second off the national record. The hurdler has show steady progress so far this year, but believes there is still a long way to go.

The former Calabar High athlete, who two years ago became the new national record holder in the event, had mixed feelings about his performance though.

"I feel good about lowering the record, but I cost myself a big personal record with the start I had," Thomas told Star Sports.

After being competitive all season behind the big three, Dayron Robles, Liu Xiang and David Oliver in the event, Thomas was expected to win in Oslo as he had the fastest time among those in the field this season. However, he had to play second fiddle to the American Merritt who posted a season's best 13.12 seconds to win the event. Thomas feels that better execution would have enabled him to have a much better performance in the meet.

"I really should have executed better from the blocks, I did too much running from back, but this is something I will work on for Daegu and the remainder of the summer competitions," he said.

"I am disappointed that I did not win, but the important races will come later," he continued.

The athlete, who will now turn his attention to the national trials, where he is heavily favoured to secure a spot on the team to Daegu, has run his final race before the National Championships in the next two weeks.

"For now I will just continue with my training and get myself ready for trials," Thomas said.