It’s a big day for Britain on the track. After Keely Hodgkinson’s gold last night, Josh Kerr is looking to become the first British man to take Olympic 1500m gold for 40 years, since Seb Coe in Los Angeles.
Lizzie Bird goes in the 3000m steeplechase final (you should watch her dramatic qualification), having taken bronze in this event at the last two European outdoor Championships.
Daryll Neita and Dina Asher-Smith are both in the 200m final. Across the past five games, going all the way back to Beijing 2008, Britain only had one women’s 200m finalist (Asher-Smith, fifth in Rio de Janeiro in 2016). To have two is a huge sign of the strength of British female sprinting.
Both made big coaching changes post-Tokyo — Neita trains out in Italy and Asher-Smith moved to the United States. Those changes look to be paying dividends.
Matthew Hudson-Smith and Charles Dobson will look to put down markers in the men’s 400m semi-final. Hudson-Smith is lane seven in semi-final three, a good lane draw, running outside U.S. star Michael Norman.
Dobson is in semi-final one, up against Belgium’s Alexander Doom and U.S. world No. 1 Quincy Hall.
Britain haven’t had a women’s 200m medal since 1960. They’re going to face tough opposition in the form of a U.S. trio, including Gabby Thomas especially (fastest in the semi-finals) and 100m champion Julien Alfred.
But with no Jamaicans in the final, the opportunity to end that run has never been better.
Asher-Smith and Neita go next to each other in lanes three and four — both qualified by position for the final.
This morning Laura Muir, Georgia Bell, and Reeve Walcott-Nolan are in the 1500m heats.
