Orpington's Dina Asher-Smith admitted her relief at learning the Tokyo Olympics had been pushed back 12 months to the summer of 2021 because of coronavirus.

The 24-year-old won World Championship silver and gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres respectively last year and is one of Great Britain's biggest track medal hopes in the Japanese capital.

The postponement of the Games, which were supposed to take place from July 24 to August 9 this year, was announced when the United Kingdom had just gone into lockdown at the end of March.

Reflecting on the moment when she learned the Olympics would be shelved, Asher-Smith said: "I remember weirdly feeling personally relieved. That sounds strange for an athlete to say.

"But I remember that day it was postponed, all gyms were shut, tracks were shut, I had no access to physios, no access for biomechanics and I had no idea of how I would train to an Olympic standard from inside my flat.

"In the weirdest sense I was relieved.

"I'm personally OK with it being postponed; one, because of the circumstances and, two, because as a team it has given us the luxury to step back and say now we have more time."

Asher-Smith started out at the Blackheath and Bromley Harriers and attended Newstead Wood School in Orpington.

The knock-on effect of the Olympics postponement means there will be back-to-back World Championships in 2022 in Oregon and 2023 in Budapest followed by the 2024 Games in Paris.

Asher-Smith, who won bronze in the 4x100m at Rio 2016, added on BBC Sounds' No Passion No Point podcast: "We have never had a period where we have four global events back-to-back.

"I think athletics, especially in the UK, has an opportunity in this period. In terms of the long-term future of athletics, weirdly I think as a sport it has one of the biggest opportunities because of the reshuffle."