Thursday 26 September 2019 15:21, UK
Dina Asher-Smith leads Britain's medal hopes at the World Athletics Championships, which get underway in Doha on Friday.
Over 70 British athletes are set to compete throughout the World Championships, with sprint star Asher-Smith and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson two of the high-profile female names in action, along with middle-distance runner Laura Muir.
Adam Gemili - who won a World Championship gold medal at London 2017 following a sensational performance in the 4 x 100m relay race, is also set to feature for Team GB.
Ahead of what promises to be an enthralling 10 days, we've picked out five athletes primed to star in Qatar.
It's the first World Championships without Usain Bolt since 2005, but - in Warholm - we have an athlete with more than enough personality and ability to plug the gap. Karsten runs faster each and every time the starter's pistol sounds.
The former decathlete committed to the 400 hurdles in 2015, and has since become World, European, and Diamond League champion - the latter courtesy of the second-fastest clocking of all time in Zurich last month: 46.92.
Second in that race, with the third-quickest time in history was three-time NCAA Champion Rai Benjamin. It is unfathomable that the American dipped below 47 seconds, and didn't even come away with the win.
Throw home favourite Abderrahman Samba into the mix, and three of the four men to have ever broken that hallowed barrier could be lining up in the final next week.
Warholm is the man for the big occasion, and edging that scintillating Diamond League final - despite stuttering badly into the penultimate barrier - will be a real boost ahead of this stacked showdown.
What's certain is that it's going to take something very special to win the men's 400m hurdles in Doha - quite possibly a crack at Kevin Young's 1992 world record of 46.78.
Warholm burst onto the scene with his Munch-esque incredulity at his own world-beating performance in London in 2017 (search 'Karsten Warholm the scream', if you've missed the meme); all eyes will be on the Norwegian showman over the next few days, as he looks to craft another classic.
Echevarria seems to have only cursory respect for gravity, and talent coming out of his ears. Until this season, however, he's not always looked in control of his prodigious abilities and has cut a frustratingly inconsistent figure.
His 7.86m in London at the last World Championships was enough for just 15th place in the long jump, and there have been meetings when you felt he was just as likely to foul three times as he was to clear the pit entirely.
Clearing the sand completely might sound ridiculous, but the Cuban jumped a wind-assisted 8.92m in Havana back in March, and at just 21, there's plenty of room for improvement. In between him and an inaugural global title is reigning World and Commonwealth Champion Luvo Manyonga.
The South African hasn't replicated his 2018 form yet this season - we'd grown accustomed to the Olympic silver medallist soaring over 8.50m - but he still poses a real threat, and has much more big-meet experience than his Cuban challenger.
That said, such is Echevarria's ability that the result is out of Manyonga's hands. If the youngster gets it right, he will leave Doha with a gold medal in the long jump. It is that simple.
Whisper it, but a British sprinter is gunning for, and could actually achieve, the treble at a World Championships.
In Berlin last summer, she obliterated both individual national records and produced a stunning anchor leg in the 4x100m en route to a continental trio of golds, and has backed that up on the global stage in this year's Diamond League.
Four sub-11 clockings over the sport's blue-riband distance on the circuit culminated in a seriously impressive run in the final in Brussels, in which she beat Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce out of the blocks, and clinched her maiden Diamond League title.
The women's sprints are saturated at present, and the two Jamaicans (Fraser-Pryce and double Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson) are both faster on paper over 100m, but Dina has beaten both of them this season, and her composure, consistency, and competitive instincts make her the odds-on favourite for this title.
Over 200m, only one woman really looks to have the beating of Asher-Smith, and that's the peerless Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who - thanks to awkward scheduling - is unable to attempt a 200-400 double in Doha.
In the Bahamian's absence, Dina looks perfectly-placed to dethrone Dafne Schippers, who's looked decidedly off the pace so far this year. By the penultimate day of the Championships, Dina has the chance to cement her superstardom status in the relay.
Great Britain won silver in this event in London, and - with Asher-Smith, Asha Philip, and Daryll Neita from that quartet all in fantastic form - plus Kristal Awuah, Ashleigh Nelson, and Sky Scholar Imani-Lara Lansiquot making up a formidable sprint relay squad) - there's a very real chance of a third medal.
Asher-Smith is rapidly becoming the face of British Athletics - a mantle she has borne comfortably, with both articulacy and charm - and Doha is her chance to truly make history. Not since Kathy Cook in 1983 has Britain had an individual medal in the women's 100m or 200m, and there suddenly seems a chance at both.
The women's 800m is without any of the three Rio medallists - Caster Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba, and Margaret Wambui - all of whom have been affected by the IAAF's changes to eligibility rules for athletes with differences in sexual development.
In their absence, the USA's Ajee Wilson is the runaway favourite: fastest in the world this year, Diamond League champion, and undefeated over the distance in 2019 in every race without Semenya.
The American record-holder might be favourite for gold, but there might well be a place on the podium for one of Great Britain's most underrated athletes. Shelayna Oskan-Clarke is a world indoor medallist, reigning European Indoor Champion, and an assured and canny racer.
She doesn't compete much on the Diamond League circuit, but runs astutely and aggressively, and finished fifth in Beijing at the 2015 Worlds. Championship middle-distance races can be cagey, tactical affairs, and Oskan-Clarke is a safe pair of hands.
If she can navigate the heats and semi-finals without incident, don't be surprised to see this powerful runner in the mix on Monday.
Keep an eye out for compatriots Lynsey Sharp, who's in a rich vein of form, and Championships debutant Alex Bell, who displayed admirable composure to finish fifth at the Commonwealths last year, and recently won the 800m for Team Europe at The Match.
The Olympic champion doesn't run, she glides. The Bahamian stands at 6ft 1in and is one of the most effortless, athletic competitors around. If she teams up with the similarly balletic Steven Gardiner in the mixed 4x400 relay, it will be an aesthetic delight of a race, and a terrifyingly quick one at that.
She's a sub-49 second quarter-miler, ran a national record of 21.74 over 200 metres in the Diamond League final in Zurich last month, and is undefeated across the board since the start of the 2018 season.
That said, it's not all been smooth sailing in Championships; her gold in Rio came after she controversially threw herself across the line to beat Allyson Felix; she inexplicably seized up in the final metres of the 400m at the 2017 Worlds, fading to fourth; and she looked well shy of her best in the 200m at that same event, in which she finished third.
Since, however, she has been unstoppable, and it is a real shame that she is unable to attempt the 200-400m double. There have been six sub-50 second runs this season, and three of them were by Miller-Uibo.
The only athlete who might challenge her is Salwa Eid Naser, the Bahraini record-holder and Diamond League Champion.
The pair haven't yet met this year, and there will certainly be fireworks when they do; we haven't seen two women break the 49-second barrier in the same race since 1996, but that could well change in Doha.
Ultimately, Naser will run fast, but Miller-Uibo will run faster. She's the Champion elect, and with so much yet to come. This ought to be her first, but in no way her last, global title.
