World Athletics Championships: 'The field is so wide open' - Dina Asher-Smith reaches 200m final with season's best time

Dina Asher-Smith clocked a season's best time to reach the final and continue her defence of her 200 metres title at the World Championships in Oregon. Asher-Smith (21.96 seconds) finished second in a hugely competitive second semi-final, pipped by a single hundredth of a second on the dip by Tamara Clark of the USA, with Elaine Thompson-Herah, a two-time Olympic gold medallist over the distance, also progressing in third.

Ad/> The trio were three of five athletes to run beneath 22 seconds, with Jamaica's Shericka Jackson the fastest qualifier through to the final with a time of 21.67. World Championships'I didn't expect that!' — Asher-Smith storms into 100m semis with quickest time17/07/2022 AT 07:46 Jackson and Thompson-Herah had pushed Asher-Smith off the podium in the 100 metres as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce led home an all-Jamaican podium, and the British record holder knows that she faces a tough task if she is to defend her crown over the longer distance.

«I am really happy with that,» Asher-Smith told BBC Sport. «The field is so wide open and the quality is so high.

We knew we had to run this very well so I was really happy to get second. »I'm happy that we've got a day break so I can rest, recuperate, focus and get ready to go again, just a bit faster." Jenna Prandini of the USA missed out on the final despite running a time of 22.08, which would have been good enough for silver behind Asher-Smith in Doha at the last Worlds in 2019.