Great Britain fall short of medal target in Doha

Great Britain suffered their worst World Championships since 2005 after falling short of their medal target.

The squad finished with five medals – including Dina Asher-Smith’s hat-trick haul – after the end of competition in Qatar on Sunday.

Zoey Clark, Emily Diamond, Jodie Williams and Laviai Nielsen finished fourth in the 4×400 metres relay on the final evening as GB missed their seven-to-nine medal target.

“We ran our socks off, every single one of us. We wanted that medal so, so badly,” said Diamond.

“That’s the fastest we’ve run in many years, it surpasses the Olympics, and I think we can be proud of ourselves.”

The 4x400m men of Cameron Chalmers, Toby Harries, Rabah Yousif and Lee Thompson did not finish the final race of the Championships in Doha.

Harries failed to hand over the baton to Yousif in the second change with Harries ended up on the floor still holding it.

Asher-Smith claimed the 200m title, 100m silver and 4x100m silver while Katarina Johnson-Thompson took the heptathlon title.

The men’s 4x100m relay squad also won silver in the final major outdoor championships before next year’s Olympics in Tokyo.

On Sunday, Jake Wightman came fifth, Josh Kerr finished sixth and Neil Gourley was 11th in the men’s 1500m, which was won by Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot in three minutes 29.26 seconds.

“It was tough, I honestly knew that was going to happen but not that quick,” said Wightman. “I thought it would be won in about 3:32 or 33. We were prepared for it.

“But I think that track is quick. It probably glorifies the times a little bit.

“You knew Timothy was going to do that when he’s been running so quickly all year. None of can live with him in any other race and it shouldn’t be any different here.”

In the long jump final, which was won by Germany’s Malaika Mihambo with a leap of 7.30m, Abigail Irozuru came seventh (6.64m) with Shara Proctor 11th on 6.43m.

Cindi Ofili bowed out of the 100m hurdles in the semi-final after coming sixth in 12.95 seconds.

She added: “I didn’t execute the way I’d have liked. I’m just happy to be healthy – it’s been a really long journey back and its not just my Achilles but the other injuries that came with that.

“It’s hard but I overcame all of them and I’m excited for next year. Its all go from here for next year, so I’ll just keep going and use this for experience.”