Athletics
Asher-Smith’s win ends Britain’s long sprint gold drought
DOHA: Dina Asher-Smith charged to victory in the 200 metres at the world track championships on Wednesday, underlining her status as a top contender for next year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Asher-Smith added 200m gold to the silver she won on Sunday in the 100m, a big deal for a country which before these championships had not won a women’s world medal of any colour in either event since 1983.
“It’s very, very surreal,” she said. “When I was out there, I was thinking: ‘Please, please. Just run the race how you know you can and win.’”
The 23-year-old from London is far from assured of a win in Tokyo, though.
Wednesday’s field was severely depleted after defending world champion Dafne Schippers and reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson withdrew with injuries. Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce pulled out after winning the 100m on Sunday.
Asher-Smith won in a British-record 21.88 seconds, 0.04 ahead of fast-finishing US runner Brittany Brown, and can now target a third medal in the 4x100m relay tomorrow. The bronze went to Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambunji.
The men’s 110m hurdles ended with recriminations after Olympic and 2017 world champion Omar McLeod veered out of his lane and into Spain’s Orlando Ortega before falling.
Grant Holloway of the US stayed clear of the drama to win a fairly slow final in 13.10sec, the same time he’d run in the previous round.
Sergey Shubenkov, the 2015 world champion, took silver for the third medal of the championships for the Russian team, who are competing as a squad of officially neutral athletes due to past doping violations. He’s reached the podium at the last four world championships going back to 2013.
Bronze went to Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France, while the clearly frustrated Ortega trailed in fifth, his race ruined by contact with McLeod, who was disqualified. It was meant to be the comeback final for McLeod, who missed much of 2018 with injuries and finally seemed to have found his form again in the semi-finals.
Pawel Fajdek of Poland, the undisputed king of hammer throw at the world championships, sealed his fourth consecutive title with a throw of 80.50m. No other man has won more than two.
The question now is whether he can finally add an Olympic medal after being eliminated in qualifying at the 2012 and 2016 Games.
Quentin Bigot of France took the silver with 78.19m, beating Hungary’s Bence Halasz by a single centimetre.
Britain are eyeing another gold medal in the heptathlon as Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads by 96 points after the first day. She lagged behind Olympic champion Nafi Thiam of Belgium for most of the day, but overhauled her rival in the 200m, the last event of the day.
Men’s decathlon world record holder Kevin Mayer of France sits third in the standings behind two Canadians after day one. Damian Warner leads, and Pierce LePage overtook Mayer in the 400m, the day’s last event.
The fastest man in the world over 400m this year, US runner Michael Norman, was eliminated in the semifinals after running while injured. The final is today.