Asher-Smith and her sport are in a fight to be at centre of the conversation again

LIBERTY MEDIA'S main goal when it bought Formula One was to crack the United States. Viewing figures in the US for Drive to Survive and race attendances there for the past year suggest it has done just that.

- Matt Majendie

Athletics has struggled to attain relevance much beyond the Olympic Games or the country's collegiate system.

But in Eugene, a city with a population just shy of 180,000 - of which only two London boroughs (Kingston and Kensington and Chelsea ) have a smaller populati the plan is to alter that starting with the World Athletics Championships from today.

This is a place better known as TrackTown USA, the home of athletics in the States and where the craze for nation's amateur running was born as well as the birthplace of the Nike brand.

In the build-up to the 10-day event, Dina Asher-Smith talked of the merits of a Netflix-style documentary to follow the sport's biggest stars and put a spotlight on athletics.

From a British perspective, Asher-Smith is the No1 sell. The problem is that, while she has had some good results Diamond League wins in Birmingham and Stockholm - she is not even the fastest woman in Britain currently, having lost to Daryll Neita at last month's British Championships.