World Athletics Championships 2019: Dina Asher-Smith leads British medal hopes in Doha

World Athletics Championships 2019: Dina Asher-Smith leads British medal hopes in Doha


Dina Asher-Smith is hoping to create history as she leads Britain’s hopes of winning medals at the World Athletics Championships, which begin on Friday.

No British woman has won a world sprint title – in 1983 Kathy Cook won 200m bronze and helped the 4x100m relay team finish second behind East Germany.

Asher-Smith, 23, won this year’s 100m Diamond League title and goes to Doha with hopes of winning three medals.

“It’s refreshing we are expected to do something,” she told BBC Sport.

Asher-Smith, 1500m runner Laura Muir and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson are the trio tipped to win individual medals, while Great Britain are expected to win more medals in the relays.

At London 2017, Britain won six medals, with Mo Farah claiming the only individual medals with gold in the 10,000m and silver in the 5,000m, while Britain’s men won the 4x100m relay and finished third in the 4x400m relay. The women’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams were second in their events.

Kent-born Asher-Smith is aiming to better Farah’s achievement by winning three – in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay – although no British woman has won individual world medals in two events.

She came agonisingly close to breaking her world medal duck two years ago when she missed out on 200m bronze by 0.07 seconds.

Since then the Blackheath & Bromley Harrier has achieved her first major sprint double at last year’s European Championships and followed it up this season with great displays in the Diamond League.



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