ASHER-SMITH’S SILVER

DINA ASHER-SMITH set her sights on Olympic glory after claiming an historic silver medal in the World Championship 100m final.

The triple European champion broke her own British record to finish second behind Shelly-Ann FraserPryce in 10.83secs.

Asher-Smith said: “I worked so hard for this, for this championship and hopefully I’ll go on to do bigger things. When I stood on the line I was thinking, ‘Right, this is your time to go.’

“A PB, a national record – that more than you can ask for in a final. Shelly-Ann did a fantastic performance and that’s why she’s an absolute legend. I’m happy!”

Asher-Smith lived up to her star billing by becoming the first British woman to win a global medal in the 100m for 59 years.

But while her silver medal run was broadcast live to an armchair audience on BBC2, the almost total absence of fans at the Khalifa Stadium left track legends raging.

Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis blasted: “Our governing body has let our athletes down, massively.”

Her anger contrasted with the joy of Asher-Smith, 23, in taking second place behind ‘supermum’ FraserPryce is

from ALEX SPINK in Doha (inset), who won her fourth world title at the age of 32 in a time of 10.71secs.

Marie-Josee Ta Lou, of Ivory Coast, was third with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson fourth.

Britain had not had a female world sprint medallist since Kathy Smallwood-Cook’s 200m bronze in 1983 before Asher-Smith stopped the clock on 10.83secs.

In the 100m you had to go back to the shock Olympic silver won by Yorkshire teenager Dorothy Hyman in Rome in 1960.

Such an achievement deserved far greater than row upon row of empty seats in a 40,000-seater stadium at a championships pushed into October by the Arabian heat. In the pole vault Holly Bradshaw cleared 4.80m to get within touching distance of a medal.

But she came up agonisingly short attempting to break her own national record and had to settle for fourth.

Rabah Yousif, Zoey Clark, Emily Diamond and Martin Rooney also finished fourth in the inaugural 4 x 400m mixed relay, despite a European record time of 3:12.27.

On a day of near misses GB’s 800m trio failed to make the men’s final, Elliot Giles missing out by 0.08secs.