WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
KYLE Langford was so close to becoming a real-life Alf Tupper last night in a sensational 800m final at the World Championships.
The Watford star produced the performance of his life to finish fourth, missing out on a medal by just 400ths of a second.
Langford crossed the line in a personal best of 1:45.25 as France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse won in 1:44.67 from Poland’s Adam Kszcot (1:44.95) and Kenya’s Kipyegon Bett (1:45.21).
Comic-book hero Tupper was an athletics champion on the back of eating fish and chips and Langford’s parents, who own a fish and chip shop in Watford, were in the crowd to cheer on their son.
And what noise there was as he came through from last in the final 200m.
As Bosse headed for gold, Langford was eating up ground with every stride and just as it looked like he would snatch bronze the line came too soon.
But he will take so much from this run and there is no doubt that British athletics has a new star of the middle distances.
There was drama away from the track last night when Botswana’s Isaac Makwala was not allowed entry into the stadium after being ruled out by the IAAF following an outbreak of the norovirus bug.
Makwala was one of the favourites for the 400m final, even though he missed the 200m heats on Monday when he was withdrawn by the international governing body because of a “medical condition”.
But Botswana team representative Falcon Sedimo said: “Isaac has been taken back to the hotel. We don’t have any official communication from the IAAF.
“There should have been formal communications. We have only heard via the media about him not competing. He is heartbroken and we believed he would be one of the medallists. For us, it is a question of effective communication. There have been no medical tests.”
But amid the confusion, the IAAF had earlier put out a statement saying Makwala was withdrawn from last night’s race on the instruction of the IAAF medical delegate.
Among the 30 hit by illness as a result of gastroenteritis, there has been two cases of norovirus.
At the Olympics here in 2012, Dina Asher-Smith was a volunteer bag carrier for the athletes, including looking after Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill’s kit before the 800m as she won the heptathlon on Super Saturday. Now the cheers were for Asher-Smith herself after a season where she has come back from breaking a bone in her foot when at one time it looked like she would not make it. But make it she did and what an impressive run she produced from lane two in the fifth heat of the 200m.
Asher-Smith flew out of the blocks and found herself in a good position early on, a lead she never lost as she progressed by winning in 22.73 from Canada’s Crystal Emmanuel in 22.87.
“Breaking my foot was not great and I am going to try to make that final,” said Asher-Smith, 21, who last year won Olympic relay bronze and European gold.
“I am so grateful to be here. It feels so good to be in front crowd.”
Asher-Smith’s fellow Briton Bianca Williams also reached tomorrow’s semifinals as one of the fastest losers after running 23.30 but team-mate Shannon Hylton (23.39) did not.
The fastest of them all was the defending champion, Dafne Schippers of Holland, who soared into the semis by winning the opening heat in 22.63.
It was a night to remember for the Czech Republic’s Barbora Spotakova, 36, as she won javelin gold a decade after first taking the title in Osaka.
The world record-holder won with a second round of this incredible