HISTORY-MAKER Dina Asher-Smith has overtaken Britain’s athletics greats with the heaviest-ever swag-bag of medals.
The 23-year-old Londoner enjoyed silver success in the women’s 4×100 metres relay final as Team GB came home second in a time of 41.85sec.
Dina Asher-Smith, right, has overtaken Britain’s athletics greats with the heaviest-ever swag-bag of medalsCredit: Reuters
Asher-Smith, 23, will return home tomorrow as the first British athlete to win THREE medals from the same world track-and-field championships.
She won silver in the 100m and gold in the 200m — setting a new British record in the process.
And last night aongside Asha Philip, Ashleigh Nelson and Daryll Neita finished 0.41 behind Jamaica but ahead of America, who took bronze in 42.10.
And the men emulated that feat minutes later, although they surrendered their world crown from 2017.
To put it into context, this is more medals than Mo Farah achieved from the same Olympic or Worlds.
And remember he won two medals at six different major champs.
It’s a bigger one-off collection than middle-distance runners Ann Packer, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Roger Black, Kelly Holmes and Christine Ohuruogu could muster.
Asher-Smith will return home as the first British athlete to win three medals from the same world track-and-field championshipsCredit: PA:Press Association
Even the long list of sprinters – which includes Allan Wells and Linford Christie – were unable to complete the hat-trick.
Within the space of seven glorious days, the 23-year-old became 200m world champion, won 100m silver and now has a relay silver gong.
Asher-Smith, who won triple gold at the European championships in Berlin, was supposed to run the anchor leg.
But there was a last-minute change because of a thigh strain to Imani Lansiquot in the warm-up.
It meant Asher-Smith was surprisingly moved to the second section but she did not disappoint by putting the afterburners on.
The real star was Neita who collected the baton equal level with Americans but managed to guide them home for a second successive silver at world level.
Coe, now the sport’s most influential person in his capacity as IAAF president, rates Asher-Smith as the “poster-child” of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Given what she has achieved in the desert this past week, there can be no arguing she will be the face of the Japan Games.
Asher-Smith, who won triple gold at the European championships in Berlin, was supposed to run the anchor legCredit: Reuters
For the men, this was a bittersweet moment because while they finished second, it means they can no longer call themselves the world champions.
Adam Gemili, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran a Europan record of 37.36 seconds – 0.26 seconds behind the US. It was 0.07 seconds quicker than Japan.
It was redemption for Gemili, who was left heartbroken after his fourth-place finish in the individual 200m last week.
In the first global sprint relay without Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt, it was the United States who stormed home.
Christian Coleman, the newly-crowned 100m world champion, celebrated a second gold medal in 37.10 seconds, the third fastest display in history.
After the semi-finals, the Americans were subject to two protests – from Canada and Italy.
They claimed Team USA did not exchange the baton in the third change within the takeover rule and wanted them chucked out.
Judging from the TV replays, they had a good case but the appeal was dismissed and they were allowed to run.
Source: Athletics - thesun.co.uk
