A delighted Dina Asher-Smith wins 200m world bronze to return to the major championship podium after a year of personal and physical pain.
| Venue: Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon Dates:15-24 July |
| Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website and mobile app (UK only) |
Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson took gold in the second-fastest time in history, winning in 21.45, only 0.11 seconds off the 34-year-old world record.
Jackson’s compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won 100m gold earlier in the week, was second in 21.81 seconds.
Asher-Smith’s 2021 Olympics campaign was wrecked by a hamstring injury.
The 26-year-old’s grandmother, who she was especially close to, died earlier this year.
Asher-Smith sunk to the track after the finish, wreathed in smiles before embracing her mother Julie by the trackside.
“I don’t think we have ever been in world final with that kind of talent,” she told BBC Sport, after clocking 22.02 – 0.14 seconds outside her British record.
“I knew I just had to run as fast as my legs would carry me and really pray and hope it would be enough to get on the podium.
“I am so happy to made the podium in an era where everyone is running so fast.”
She added that the death of her grandmother had “knocked me for six”.
“She had been ill for some time and was such a bedrock of my family. I used to spend every day at her house as a child,” she said.
“For a long time athletics was at the back of my mind; my brain has been everywhere.
“It has been a really tough mental challenge to get through this season.”
Jackson, who failed to make the 200m semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics after easing up too early in her heat, has been in spectacular form this season.
The 28-year-old is the fastest in the world this year and qualified fastest for the final.
She came off the turn behind Fraser-Pryce, but the former 400m specialist had the speed to reel in her compatriot and ended the race just short of Florence Griffith Joyner’s 1988 world record.
Jackson succeeds Asher-Smith as world champion, but the Briton’s win in Doha in 2019 was against a weaker field.
American Brittany Brown’s silver-medal winning time three years ago would not even have earned a place in the final in Eugene.
Asher-Smith took the final place on the podium ahead of raft of high-quality rivals, with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and US collegiate champion Abby Steiner among those left in her wake.
Hodgkinson makes way into 800m semis
British Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson comfortably won her heat in 2:00.88 as she continued towards a 800m final showdown with American Athing Mu, the Olympic champion and fastest woman in the world this year.
Hodgkinson’s position at the front of the field ensured she avoided a pile-up of athletes following a fall in the pack on the final lap.
“I am healthy, my body is in one piece,” said Hodgkinson. “I got my ankle clipped a few times but I am grateful to come through safely.”
Jemma Reekie, whose season has been hindered by glandular fever, also qualified for the semi-finals. In a fast heat, the Scot clocked 1:59.09, her second-fastest time of 2022 to finish second.
Britons Ellie Baker and Alex Bell also advanced to the next round, which begins at 02:35 BST on Saturday.
However Kyle Langford and Daniel Rowden both failed to make the men’s 800m final. Britain’s Max Burgin, the fastest man in the world this year, pulled out of the event earlier this week with a calf injury.