Saunders: I want to be role model
Asher-smith collects third medal in sprint r elay
DINA ASHER-SMITH helped herself to another slice of history last night when powering to sprint relay silver in Doha.
Speed demon Dina, already the first British female sprinter ever to win a global title, added another first by winning her third medal at a single world championships.
No athlete from these shores, male or female, had ever achieved that, but AsherSmith made light work of it in the company of Asha Philip, Ashleigh Nelson and Daryll Neita.
“I think we all handled the pressure between us which is testimony to how much experience we have got as a squad,” said Asher- Smith after Britain finished second behind Jamaica in 41.85 seconds - a position the men emulated when giving up their title to the United States moments later.
“We almost ran a pb without practising any of the changes in the warm-up area. It’s been a good champs but obviously it’s a team event.”
Refused
Asher-smith, 23, had refused to get carried away celebrating either her 200 metres gold or
100m silBILLY JOE SAUNDERS realised he needed to grow up to make the most of his career.
The 30-year-old WBO world middleweight champion had a difficult 2018, largely of his own making, after a couple of videos of him behaving foolishly appeared online.
There was also a failed drugs ver for fear of letting down her team-mates.
That focus paid dividends at the Khalifa Stadium as she took the baton from Philip on and powered down the back straight to put Nelson and Neita in position to repeat Britain’s silver success of two years ago.
It is her fifth medal in four world championships, moving her to within three of Sir Mo Farah’s all-time best British
haul.
Britain’s men had waited 34 years for a sprint relay gold and were within 0.26secs of repeating test that cost him his world title and a career that promised so much after a stunning display against David Lemieux in Canada at the end of 2017 appeared to be in danger of fizzling out.
Saunders finally won back his title by beating Shefat Isufi this year and after his next outing, against an as yet unnamed opponent in Los Angeles on November 9, he is their London triumph over arch-rivals America.
While they came up short this time they still set a European record time of 37.36secs and again underlined the progress made by Britain’s relay programme since civil war broke out within the men’s quartet at these champs in 2015.
Fastest
There could be another relay medal today in the women’s 4 x 400m after Zoey Clark, Jodie Williams, Jessica Turner and Laviai Nielsen qualified third fastest in 3:24.99.
But the men, without injured number one Matt Hudson-smith, could finish only fifth in their heat in 3:01.96. looking for the big one against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez next year.
Next month’s fight features on the undercard of Ksi-logan Paul II, the second meeting of the Youtube stars that is set to do huge numbers in terms of pay-per-views.
Saunders’s fight will likely be aired for free in the States in a bid to raise his profile and if he puts in a performance then it’ll do his hopes of landing a shot at Canelo no harm at all.
Saunders said: “I wouldn’t say this about me wanting redemption, it’s just about wanting to be a role model.
“I started thinking about some of the things I’d done and I realised I’d got to stop doing them.
“I’ve made mistakes, plenty of them, and now I want to put my name out there for the right reasons.”