Asher-smith races to silver medal and a British record
● Fraser-pryce out in front in 100m final
Dina Asher-smith set a new British record to claim the 100 metres silver medal last night as Shelly-ann Fraserpryce dominated to win World Championships gold.
Four-time European champion Asher-smith secured her first individual world medal in 10.83 seconds. Jamaica’s double Olympic champion Fraser-pryce took her fourth 100m world title in 10.71secs while the Ivory Coast’s Mariejosee Ta Lou was third. Reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson came fourth.
Asher-smith had qualified second fastest but had to work hard in the final 20 metres to ensure she took silver. The 23-year-old was “really, really happy” and hailed Fraserpryce for her impressive win.
“I’ve worked so hard for this, I’ve worked so hard for this championships, this point in my career and hopefully I’ll go on to do bigger things,” said Asher-smith, who starts her 200m heats today.
“When I stood on the line I was thinking ‘right this is your time to go’ and I was really, really happy that I came away with a PB and national record, that is more than you could ever hope for in a world final.”
Zoey Clark narrowly missed out on earning her second world championship medal as GB&NI’S bid for bronze in the inaugural mixed 4x400 relay final fell agonisingly short.
The 24-year-old Aberdonian, inset, hauled the British quartet up to third with a superb second leg. But an awkward baton change between Emily Diamond and Martyn Rooney proved costly and his late charge for bronze fell short.
Instead, the United States claimed victory as Allyson Felix overtook Usain Bolt by snaffling her record 12th world gold. However Clark, who nevertheless now holds a share in a European record of 3:12.37, insisted the new event injected added excitement on an evening when crowds verged on the spartan. The final was given particular intrigue by Poland’s decision to switch their tactics. They ran male-male-femalefemale, whereas all the other teams opted to run malefemale-female-male.
“It was interesting and exciting to see Poland mess about here and it almost paid off,” said Clark, after the Poles finished fifth. “I’ve never lined up on the start line against a guy before so that was interesting.”
Holly Bradshaw fell just short of a medal in the pole vault in finishing fourth, with the Englishwoman thwarted in her final attempt at 4.90 metres. The 27-year-old was a mere centimetre short of her outdoor personal best but was left to watch Russia’s Anzhelika Sidorova take gold.
Zharnel Hughes, Miguel Francis and Adam Gemili all progressed into this evening’s 200m semi-finals, with their pursuit of medals aided by the withdrawal of Christian Coleman, a clear victor in Saturday’s 100m final.
Elsewhere, the British trio of Jamie Webb, Kyle Langford and Elliot Giles all exited the 800m in the semis, while Christian Taylor of the USA earned his fourth world title in the triple jump.