Asher-Smith warms up for World Championships with 200m second in Birmingham

Dina Asher-Smith sent out a warning to her World Championship rivals in the 200m at the Birmingham Diamond League.

The triple European champion came second against a world-class field on Sunday ahead of the start of the World Championships in Doha next month.

Asher-Smith clocked 22.36 seconds behind Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who won in 22.24secs on Sunday.

She beat double 100m Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who came third, while Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who won 100m and 200m World Championship silver in 2017, was eighth.

Reigning 200m world champion Dafne Schippers came fourth at the Alexander Stadium.

The trials for the Worlds, which start next month, are held at the British Championships in Birmingham next weekend.

Asher-Smith plans to run the 100m and 200m in Qatar and is expected to breeze through the trials.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson missed out on victory in the long jump by one centimetre as she hones her heptathlon events ahead of Doha.

She jumped 6.85m as she was beaten by Olympic heptathlon champion Nafi Thiam, who set a new Belgian record with a leap of 6.86m.

“I’m really happy with the distance, there was just one centimetre in it so I’m not too unhappy, but it’s heptathlete thinking,” said Johnson-Thompson, who came second in the heptathlon at the European championships behind Thiam last year.

“I wasn’t too happy with my long jump in the Anniversary Games so we went away and switched the run up.”

Elsewhere, Adam Gemili was second in the 100m, finishing just behind Jamaica’s Yohan Blake in 10.07 seconds.

European 400m champion Matthew Hudson-Smith also finished third in 45.55 seconds.

He added: “It’s a good starting point and I know what I have to work on from here. I’ve been training for a month straight and I opened up with 45.55s, give me another month and I’ll show what I can do.”

Lynsey Sharp came second in the women’s 800m and Eilish McColgan was third in the mile.