The Daily Telegraph - 19.08.2019

By Ben Bloom ATHLETICS

CORRESPONDENT in Birmingham

Dina Asher-Smith will be favourite

to win her first world title next

month after the woman who beat

her into second place in the 200 me-

tres yesterday said she would not

run the distance in Doha.

Having beaten all but one of the

world’s best 200m runners at the

Birmingham Diamond League,

Asher-Smith received the biggest

boost of all after crossing the line.

Olympic 400m champion Shaunae

Miller-Uibo, who has not lost a race

for two years and proved unbeata-

ble again at the Alexander Stadium,

confirmed she would race over just

the longer distance in Doha after

her requests for event organisers to

alter the World Championships

schedule fell on deaf ears.

Such pleas have precedent with

the likes of Allyson Felix and Wayde

van Niekerk securing schedule

changes in the past, but Bahamian

Miller-Uibo’s efforts proved unsuc-

cessful with the timings making it

near impossible for any athlete to

attempt a 200m-400m double.

All of which is great news for

Asher-Smith. The triple European

champion will attempt her own

100m-200m double in Doha and

has now proved she has the beating

of the world’s best.

Aside from Jamaica’s Elaine

Thompson, every athlete with gen-

uine aspirations of winning a 200m

medal next month featured in yes-

terday’s race and Asher-Smith

proved a cut above all bar Miller-

Uibo. There was Jamaica’s Shelly-

Ann Fraser-Pryce, a double Olympic

and seven-time world champion,

Holland’s Dafne Schippers, the dou-

ble reigning 200m world cham-

Miller-Uibos will not

face her for 200m gold

Bahamian says Briton

‘is doing extremely well’

to beat over 200m in Doha, Asher-

Smith refused to read too much

into yesterday’s race. “I don’t really

think of things like that,” she said. “I

don’t care what happens on paper. I

ran well here, great, but where does

that put me for the World Champs?

“It doesn’t really mean anything,

with the greatest respect, because

it is what happens in the three

rounds in Qatar that matters. You

have to wait and see. I feel like I’m

in that world level right now.”

Miller-Uibo admitted her disap-

pointment at not being able to con-

test both events in Doha, but

backed Asher-Smith to thrive in her

absence. “She’s doing extremely

well,” Miller-Uibo said.

“She did last year as well. I think

it’s going to be her time right here.

I’m really excited for her. She’s defi-

nitely stepping it up.”

Asher-Smith will contest only

the 100m at next weekend’s British

Championships, although she is

certain to be selected in the 200m

as well as the shorter sprint. Her

second place was as close as any

British athlete came to victory in

Birmingham, with Adam Gemili

and Lynsey Sharp matching her po-

sition. Gemili qualified fastest in

the two-round 100m and came

within the narrowest margin of vic-

tory in the final as former world

champion Yohan Blake, of Jamaica,

triumphed in 10.07sec.

Gemili, on the comeback from a

hamstring injury, was awarded the

same time.

Sharp held off some fast finishers

to secure second place in the 800m

with a time of 2min 1.09sec, behind

American winner Ajee Wilson.

With the governing body’s tes-

tosterone regulations ruling out the

likes of Caster Semenya and Fran-

cine Niyonsaba from competing in

Doha, Wilson is now a firm favour-

ite for the world title with Sharp a

possible medal contender.

“The last couple of years, I’ve not

been as close to Wilson and the

other girls,” Sharp said.

“I felt good coming off the last

First again: Shaunae Miller-Uibo pips

Dina Asher-Smith in the 200m final

PA

By Ben Bloom

If Katarina Johnson-Thompson and

Nafi Thiam’s battle for world hep-

tathlon gold is anywhere near as

close as that between the pair in

Birmingham yesterday, a titanic

tussle is in store.

Just one centimetre separated

them in the Birmingham Diamond

League long jump, as the world’s

two leading multi-eventers went

eyeball to eyeball and pushed each

other to greater heights.

For Johnson-Thompson, the re-

sult was a leap of 6.85 metres – her

best for more than 4½ years and the

confidence boost she wanted in the

build-up to next month’s World

Championships in Doha.

But Thiam’s performance tem-

pered any celebrations. The Olym-

pic, world and European champion

continues to set new standards for

multi-eventers and not only broke

her personal best by a huge 19cm,

bend and being able to pick people

off rather than being picked off.”

Close to a year after he last raced,

European 400m champion Mat-

thew Hudson-Smith finally stepped

back on the track again to begin his

season with a fine third.

An Olympic finalist three years

ago, he suffered a “pretty bad in-

jury” earlier this season, although

he declined to elaborate.

It was serious enough to prevent

him competing until now and has

left him playing catch-up for the

World Championships.

“That’s one of the fastest openers

I’ve done and seeing as I’ve only

been training for a month I’m

happy with that,” he said after

clocking 45.55sec, behind Jamai-

can winner Akeem Bloomfield. “I

got out nicely and wasn’t able to

come home as strong as I’d like, but

these guys have raced since Janu-

ary and I know I’ve got time until

the worlds. I had a pretty bad injury

and thought the season would be

over. It has been frustrating.”

World rival gives Asher-Smith title lift

Thiam gets jump on heptathlon rival Johnson-Thompson ahead of Doha

Leap for joy: Nafi

Thiam claimed

the Belgian long

jump record in

Birmingham

but also claimed the Belgian long

jump record with victory against a

field of event specialists.

With a best of 6.86m, she now

holds national records in the long

jump and javelin, as well as the hep-

tathlon. While the one centimetre

separating the pair proved the dif-

ference between first and third –

with Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic also

jumping 6.85m for second – it

equates to a negligible three points

in a heptathlon.

Such tiny margins are unlikely to

prove decisive in an event where

scores of close to 7,000 will claim

the world title, but of greater con-

cern to Johnson-Thompson is

Thiam’s seemingly unerring ability

to improve. Prior to this year,

Johnson-Thompson was almost un-

touchable in a heptathlon long

jump, but the Belgian has whittled

away that advantage.

Yet Johnson-Thompson was just

happy to return to near her best af-

ter a lean time since she failed to re-

cord a legal long jump mark in the

2015 World Championships.

Indeed, she had managed a best

effort of just 6.47m in her previous

outing, at last month’s London Dia-

mond League.

“I’m so happy we’ve found a way

to get back to those long jumps,”

she said. “I was a bit worried in

London that I might be a little bit

burnt out, but I’m glad that wasn’t

the case.

“I feel so much more confident

now about being in a good place,

come Doha. I felt like there was

more in there as well.

“Obviously Nafi’s stepped her

game up as well so I’m going to

have to step up the javelin or some-

thing else now.”

She will have an opportunity to

practise some of her other heptath-

lon disciplines when she returns to

Birmingham next weekend for the

100m hurdles, javelin and possibly

the high jump at the British Cham-

pionships.

pion, and Nigeria’s Blessing

Okagbare, the second fastest

woman in the world this year.

Asher-Smith beat all of them.

On a day of slow times, Miller-

Uibo triumphed in 22.24sec, with

Asher-Smith second in 22.36sec.

Asked if she was now the woman

Sport Athletics

The Daily Telegraph Monday 19 August 2019 *** 19
RELEASED BY "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws