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Keely Hodgkinson: women’s 800m

Keely Hodgkinson smashed the British record to win a “brilliant” silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics last year and there will be a “huge weight” on her shoulders at the world championships, said Ben Bloom in The Telegraph. The 20-year-old is one of “four standout women fighting for the podium spots” alongside Athing Mu, Ajee Wilson and Mary Moraa. Hodgkinson has “a real shot” in the 800m, said athletics legend Michael Johnson on the BBC. 

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Max Burgin: men’s 800m

Max Burgin remains both the “most exciting British prospect” for many years and the “biggest unknown”, Bloom added in The Telegraph. He is the fastest man in the world this year and, like Hodgkinson, both 20-year-olds now “shoulder British hopes” at the World Championships. There’s no doubt that Burgin “has a chance in the 800m”, said Johnson on the BBC. But making his major championship debut, “he is short of experience in a real tactical event”.

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Laura Muir: women’s 1,500m

Olympic silver medalist Laura Muir has a “genuine chance” to add a World Championship medal, said Athletics Weekly. Getting on the podium is the Scot’s target in Oregon. “For me I want to come away from these championships with a medal,” she said. “I think I’m very, very close potentially, if not there. The last couple of races showed I am at a good spot.”

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Dina Asher-Smith: women’s 200m and 100m

As of the “poster girls of the British team”, defending world champion Dina Asher-Smith is an “obvious choice”, said the PA News Agency. After winning the 200m in the 2019 worlds in Doha, the 26-year-old “faces a battle to retain the title” as she will come up against the likes of Jamaican trio Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson. As well as the 100m and 200m, Asher-Smith will also be competing in the 4x100m relay.

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Katarina Johnson-Thompson: women’s heptathlon

Another defending champion from Doha, heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, 29, arrives in the US “on shaky footing”, having parted ways with her coach Petros Kyprianou last month, said Cathal Dennehy in the Daily Mail. “Crucially, though, she’s healthy again and has put together a consistent block of training.” In the heptathlon athletes compete in the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and 800m.

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Neil Gourley, Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr: men’s 1,500m

There are three Scots – Neil Gourley, Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr – who are “eyeing world 1,500m gold”, said the BBC. The only time a British male won the 1,500m world title was Steve Cram’s “famous triumph” in Helsinki back in 1983. The trio have been in “promising form stretching back to the last Olympics” and will look to create a new chapter in Team GB’s history.