Nowhere to hide in Doha – Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith has warned her World Championships rivals there will be nowhere to hide in Doha.

The triple European champion is Great Britain’s biggest hope ahead of the Championships, which start on Friday.

She is favourite for the 200m – ahead of reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson – and third favourite behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Thompson in the 100m.

But Asher-Smith remains undaunted in Qatar and is ready to take on the world’s best.

“The World Championships is going to be the first time where we see everybody with nowhere to hide,” she said.

“There will be no ‘I wasn’t ready for this, I wasn’t ready for this’ because if you are not ready for the World Championships, when are you ready?

“You can always try and predict these things but that is why I love track and field. It is so hard to, hand on heart, predict the races.

“You have got who you want to win and you have got who you think will win but often what happens on the day, you actually never know.

“At the last World Championships you had people not running to their fullest potential, it was raining – people couldn’t handle that, hopefully we won’t have rain in Qatar if that happens I’ll be very surprised – so hand on heart I don’t know.”

Asher-Smith won the 100m Diamond League final earlier this month and took gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the European Championships in Berlin last summer.

The 23-year-old will run in the 200m heats on Monday less than 24 hours after Sunday’s 100m final.

Asher-Smith is also part of the 4x100m relay squad and admits she has gone through the pain barrier to be ready.

“We have been preparing for a very, very long time. it has been painful,” she said.

“John (Blackie, coach) has been testing me. When he tells me you are doing this today, I am like ‘what!’.

“He’s like ‘I’m sure you can do it’ and I’m like ‘well you are, but what about me?’

“We have been preparing and that is why the decision to double up isn’t one that I have taken lightly, it’s not a flippant decision, it is something we have been working towards for the past two years.”