Dina Asher-Smith leads Britain’s medal hopes in the World Athletics Championships, which get underway on Friday at Doha.
More than 70 British athletes are set to compete with sprint celebrity Asher-Smith, throughout the World Championships and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson two of the female names.
Adam Gemili – who won a World Championship gold medal at London 2017 after a breathtaking performance from the 4 x 100m relay race, which is set to feature Team GB.
Ahead of what claims to become the enthralling 10 times, we have picked five athletes prepared to star in Qatar.
It is the World Championships without Usain Bolt because 2005, but – in Warholm – we’ve got an athlete having ability and more than enough nature to plug the difference. Karsten runs every time the starter’s pistol sounds and faster each.
The former decathlete committed to the 400 hurdles in 2015, and has since become World, European, and also Diamond League champion – that the latter courtesy of this second-fastest clocking of time in Zurich last month: 46.92.
Second with the period in history in that race has been NCAA Champion Rai Benjamin. It’s unfathomable that the American dipped under 47 seconds, and did come off with the win.
Throw three of those four guys, and home favourite Abderrahman Samba into the mixture to have broken that barrier that is hallowed may be lining up in the closing week.
Warholm is your man for the event, and edging that scintillating Diamond League final – despite stuttering into the penultimate barrier – will be a boost ahead of the stacked showdown.
What’s sure is that it is going to take something very unique to win the men’s 400m hurdles in Doha – quite possibly a fracture in Kevin Young’s 1992 entire listing of 46.78.
Warholm burst on the scene along with his Munch-esque incredulity at his own world-beating performance in London at 2017 (search’Karsten Warholm the scream‘, if you have overlooked the meme); all eyes will be on the Norwegian showman during the next few days, as he looks to craft another classic.
Echevarria appears to have just regard for gravity, and ability coming out of the ears. Until this season he’s not seemed in control of his prodigious skills and has cut at out a figure that was unpredictable.
His 7.86m London in the previous World Championships was sufficient for just 15th place in the long leap, and there were meetings when you believed he had been just as prone to foul three occasions as he had been to clear the pit entirely.
Clearing the sand completely might seem absurd, however, the Cuban jumped a wind-assisted 8.92m Havana back in March, also at only 21, there’s plenty of space for progress. In between an worldwide title is dominating Commonwealth Champion Luvo Manyonga and World.
The South African hasn’t replicated his 2018 sort yet this season – we’d grown used to the Olympic silver medallist soaring over 8.50m but he poses a real threat, and has more big-meet expertise than his Cuban challenger.
Nevertheless, such is the skill of Echevarria that the outcome is out of Manyonga’s handson. He’ll leave Doha with a golden medal at the long jump In the event the child gets it right. It’s that simple.
Whisper it, but a British sprinter is currently gunning to get and may attain, the treble in a World Championships.
At Berlin the summertime, she generated a stunning anchor leg in the 4x100m en route to a trio of all golds and authored both national records, and has backed up on the global stage in this season’s Diamond League.
Four clockings within the sport distance on the circuit culminated in a impressive run at the closing in Brussels, in which Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is beaten by her out of the blocks, and also clinched her Diamond League name.
The women’s sprints are saturated at present, along with both Jamaicans (Fraser-Pryce and twice Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson) are equally faster on paper over 100m, but Dina has conquered them this year, and her composure, consistency, and aggressive instincts make her the odds-on favorite with this name.
More than 200m, only 1 woman actually looks to get the beating of Asher-Smith, and that’s the peerless Shaunae Miller-Uibo, that – due to scheduling that is embarrassing – is not able to attempt a dual that is 200-400 in Doha.
From the Bahamian’s lack, Dina seems perfectly-placed into dethrone Dafne Schippers, who is looked off the pace so far this season. From the day of the Championships, Dina gets the opportunity to cement her superstardom standing in the relay.
Excellent Britain won silver in this event in London, also – with Asher-Smith, Asha Philip, also Daryll Neita from this quartet all in excellent form – plus Kristal Awuah, Ashleigh Nelson, along with Sky Scholar Imani-Lara Lansiquot making up a strong sprint relay group ) – there’s a very real likelihood of a third decoration.
Asher-Smith is rapidly becoming the surface of British Athletics – a mantle she has borne comfortably, with articulacy and charisma – and Doha is the opportunity to make history. Not because Kathy Cook in 1983 has since Britain had an individual medal at the girls 100m or 200m, and there appears an opportunity in the two.
The girls 800m is without any of those three Rio medallists – Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba, also Margaret Wambui – all of whom are affected by the IAAF’s modifications to eligibility guidelines for athletes who have differences in sexual growth.
In their absence, the USA’s Ajee Wilson is the most popular favourite: fastest in the world this season, Diamond League winner, and undefeated within the space in 2019 in each race with no Semenya.
The might be preferred for gold, but there might be a place of the most underrated athletes of Great Britain in the podium for one. Shelayna Oskan-Clarke is a world indoor medallist, reigning European Indoor Champion, and an racer.
She doesn’t compete far however operates aggressively and astutely, and finished in Beijing. Championship races that are middle-distance can be cagey affairs, and Oskan-Clarke is a safe pair of hands.
If she can navigate the heats and don’t hesitate to see that this potent runner.
Keep an eye out for compatriots Lynsey Sharp, who is at a rich vein of form, also Championships debutant Alex Bell, who also displayed admirable composure to finish fifth in the Commonwealths last year, and won the 800m for Team Europe in The Match.
The Olympic winner does not run, she glides. The Bahamian stands at 6ft 1in and is now among the most effortless, athletic competitors. When she teams up with the similarly balletic Steven Gardiner in the combined 4×400 relay, it will be a decorative delight of a race, along with a terrifyingly quick one at that.
She’s a sub-49 second quarter-miler, ran a nationwide record of 21.74 over 200 metres in the Diamond League final in Zurich a month, also is undefeated across the board because the start of the 2018 season.
Having said that, it is not all been smooth sailing ; her gold at Rio came later she controversially drove himself across the line to beat Allyson Felix; she inexplicably seized up in the last metres of the 400m in the 2017 Worlds, fading to fourth; also she seemed well shy of her greatest in the 200m in that same occasion, in which she finished third.
Ever since, however, she has been scrupulous, and it is a real shame that she’s unable to try the 200-400m doublecheck. There were six runs this season, and a number of them were Miller-Uibo.
The only athlete who could challenge her is Salwa Eid Naser, the Bahraini record-holder and Diamond League Champion.
The pair have not yet met this season, and there’ll certainly be fireworks when they do; we have not seen two girls break the 49-second barrier in the same race since 1996, but that could change in Doha.
Naser will run but Miller-Uibo will run. She’s the Champion elect, and with so much yet to come. This should be her first, but in no way her past, global title.
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