For most of the year Dina Asher-Smith spends her time studying history. Now, increasingly, the King’s College, London, student is determined to make it. The 19-year-old was impressive as she ran a personal best of 22.22sec in her opening heat – the fastest first-round 200m in world championship history.
To put Asher-Smith’s performance into further context, it would also have won her a medal at the past 10 world championships – and gold in 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2011. “I didn’t expect to run a personal best in the heat,” she admitted. “I ran a good bend and when I saw where I was I tried to ease my way to the line to get a good lane for the semi-final. I’m absolutely over the moon.”
Asher-Smith’s time was well clear of the pre-event favourites Dafne Schippers, the 100m silver medallist, and Elaine Thompson, who is being talked up by the Jamaican camp, but the young Briton was coy when it was suggested that she was a medal contender. “I’ve got to qualify for the final first,” she warned before Thursday’s semi-finals. “But I am raring to go.”
Mo Farah was also upbeat after qualifying for Saturday’s 5,000m final after coming a steady second behind the 18-year-old Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, despite being tripped again on the last lap. “I’ve got a long stride, it’s the way I run,” he explained after nearly falling with 200m to go. “I don’t blame anyone but even in training sometimes my partners catch my leg, which is why I sometimes have to be on the front or the back, or stay on the outside.”
In the women’s pole vault Holly Bradshaw was delighted to finish seventh after spending much of the past two years injured. In the buildup to Beijing, Bradshaw revealed she was “like a little kid” after vaulting for the first time in 14 months following a serious back injury and her leap of 4.70m suggests she could be one to watch in the run-up to the Rio Olympics.
Bradshaw, whose vault was only one centimetre below the outdoor British record, said: “It’s been a really tough past couple of years and this year hasn’t been a smooth ride at all. To be rewarded with a 4.70 clearance and a top eight in the world, it’s a great stepping stone towards Rio.”
The Cuban Yarisley Silva took gold with a vault of 4.90m, Brazil’s Fabiana Murer was second after going over at 4.85m and the Greek Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou was third after clearing 4.80m.
Elsewhere, Britain’s European 400m hurdles gold medallist Eilidh Child was left exasperated after finishing sixth in the final.
“It was all a bit messy,” she admitted after clocking 54.78sec behind the Czech Zuzana Hejnova, who eased to another world title in 53.50, with the American athletes Shamier Little and Cassandra Tate taking silver and bronze.“I feel like I should be among the medals and I just feel like I’m throwing these opportunities away.”
