Five of Britain’s medal hopes at World Championships in Oregon

Dina Asher-Smith will lead the charge at Hayward Field

Keely Hodgkinson is one of Great Britain’s medal hopes in Eugene (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

The World Championships begin in Eugene on Friday with Great Britain’s track and field stars aiming to make their mark on the global stage.

Here, the PA news agency looks at five of Britain’s medal hopes in Oregon.

Dina Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith is out to defend her 200m title. (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)

An obvious choice but the defending 200m champion is one of the poster girls of the British team.

She faces a battle to retain the title she won in Doha with Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson on form, while improving on the 100m silver from three years ago will also be a tall order. The 26-year-old has hinted she has something up her sleeve, though after last year’s hamstring injury wrecked her Olympics.

Max Burgin

The 20-year-old is the fastest man over 800m this year after running one minute 43.52 in Finland in June.

It was the fourth fastest British 800m of all time, with Burgin having missed the Olympics through injury and making up for lost time ahead of his major championships debut.

Keely Hodgkinson

Last year’s rising star is now a global force who has maintained her momentum following a stunning breakthrough.

Her 800m Olympic silver from Tokyo last summer marks her as another genuine medal contender in Eugene. Yet she will likely have to get past Athing Mu – who beat her to gold in Japan – and Kenya’s Mary Moraa, who edged her in Stockholm last month for victory.

Reece Prescod

Reece Prescod ran a personal best in May (Isaac Parkin/PA) (PA Wire)

The sprinter is on the comeback trail after admitting he had let himself slip last year. A personal best of 9.93 seconds in Ostrava in May showed he has the pace to threaten Linford Christie’s 100m British record, but he will need to pull out three excellent races to challenge Christian Coleman and Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs.

Laura Muir

Off the back of last year’s Olympic silver medal in the 1500m the Scot comes into the Championships confident and ready to add to her medal collection.

She has been bullish ahead of Friday’s opening round and has targeted a podium finish but Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon remains the woman to beat.