‘I’m upset with myself’: Britain’s Daryll Neita misses out on gold in dramatic 200m final

A European silver might be the best individual medal of Daryll Neita’s long international career but, at the end of a dramatic women’s 200 metres final, her body language told its own story. 

Neita is usually one of the most upbeat members of the British squad but she swiftly made for the tunnel inside Rome’s Olympic Stadium, knowing that defeat even by just one hundredth of a second represented a major opportunity missed. 

“I am honestly just so disappointed because I really wanted that medal – I know how much I should have got that,” said Neita. “I’m upset at myself because I came here for the gold.” After Dina Asher-Smith’s 100m victory on Sunday night, Neita had looked likely to seal a British women’s sprint double but missed out on the finishing dip after going stride for stride with Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji in a dramatic finish. 

Kambundji needed a personal best of 22.49 sec to win, with Neita barely improving on her semi-final performance and well outside the 22.16 sec she ran in finishing fifth at last year’s World Championships. 

She has the chance today to at least claim one gold in the women’s 4x100m relay alongside Asher-Smith, and both women intend to go for a sprint double at the Paris Olympics in August. 

With hosts Italy well clear at the top of the medal table, a depleted British team have slipped to fifth, despite Megan Keith earlier adding a bronze medal in the 10,000m. Keith has previously described the longest of all track races as “mundane” and “pretty boring” but this particular 25-lap war of attrition was one she will never forget. 

Neith and Keith add to Britain’s medal tally

She immediately joined a select group of eight that also included team-mates Jessica Warner-Judd and Eilish McColgan, who was running in her first major championship race for almost two years. 

The numbers steadily receded as the laps counted down, with first Warner-Judd and then McColgan losing touch. McColgan initially looked relatively comfortable in keeping pace with the leaders but stepped off the track with 4,000m remaining. 

She already has an Olympic qualifying time but her place in Paris is now in considerable doubt following so much lost training because of a knee injury. “I am absolutely gutted but there was nothing there,” McColgan said. “I got to halfway and thought, ‘I’m in trouble’. I even felt a little bit dizzy toward the end. “I was hoping for maybe a little bit of a miracle today after a lack of training, but miracles don’t really exist in distance running.” 

Keith’s first senior medal, behind Italian winner Nadia Battocletti, adds to an eclectic range of European age-group titles on the track, in cross-country and even in orienteering. Of her decision to try 10,000m this year, Keith had said: “The only times we had [previously] discussed it is when I have told my coach or my training partners or my family that I will never be running one.” 

Lina Nielsen had earlier finished seventh in the women’s 400m hurdles final after twin sister Laviai revealed on Monday that their coach, Tony Lester, had suffered a heart attack shortly before the championships. “I don’t want to use it as an excuse, but that does hold a lot of weight; witnessing what we had to witness,” Lina said. 

“And someone we care about so deeply, having to hope that he would be alive and OK. He just came out of hospital yesterday.” 

In one of the greatest ever triple jump competitions, Spain’s Jordan Diaz Fortun produced the third best leap of all time to take gold. Britain’s Jonathan Edwards has held the world record since 1995 but Fortun’s leap of 18.18m – just 11cm behind Edwards – suggests one of athletics’ most enduring records is finally under threat.