British Athletics' leading medal hopes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Going for gold: Dina Asher-Smith will face sterner competition in Tokyo
AFP via Getty Images

Standard Sport’s Matt Majendie assesses British Athletics' leading medal hopes with 300 days to go until the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

A triple medallist from these championships as she was at the Europeans a year ago, Asher-Smith ought to be in the mix in both the 100 and 200metres in Tokyo. But she knows she will face far tougher opposition over both distances, especially the 200, with the likes of Elaine Thompson, Dafne Schippers and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce having pulled out of that event in Qatar.

PA

The stand-out performer of the British team at the World Championships, her score of 6,981 points would have won most global heptathlon competitions in history. The issue is whether she can repeat the performance of her lifetime and whether Nafi Thiam, a little off her best last week, can return to the heights that saw her crowned Olympic and World champion previously.

AFP via Getty Images

The problem for Muir is that the task over 1500metres now only gets harder with Genzebe Dibaba having been absent from the event through injury. But Muir will have been buoyed by the fact that she ran a time of 3:55 despite the reality that this was only her third race in the past 10 weeks, her build-up having been disrupted by injury.

Missed: 'This was such an opportunity - I can't believe I missed that.'
Getty Images

At the start of the summer, no one would have given the sprinter a chance of aspiring to a medal at either the 100m or 200m. But he took himself to fourth place - as he had done at the Rio Olympics - over the longer distance and should realistically have won a medal had his technique not fallen apart in the home straight.

AFP/Getty Images

Farah has an impressive record as a championship performer on a global stage but the marathon in Tokyo will be his first at a global champs. Eliud Kipchoge appears to remain in a class of his own over 26.2miles but the Londoner will have realistic ambitions of a medal in the tough conditions, so too his fellow Briton Callum Hawkins.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in