'GB's Hughes has medal chance in wide-open sprints'

These World Championships are the best chance Zharnel Hughes has had of winning a global medal.

But what it comes down to with Hughes is delivering on the day.

The 28-year-old has run the fastest time in the world this year and broken long-standing British records over the 100m and 200m before competing over both distances in Budapest.

What that hopefully means - because I would love to see him get on the podium and I think he can - is that he has been able to turn a corner mentally.

There is no doubt in my mind something was not clicking for him before, as shown when he false-started at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

He has run fast times previously but failed to replicate that in a final, or even a semi-final, at major championships.

Hopefully what we are seeing now is a result of him figuring that out.

If there is not a reason why he has been able to perform as well as he has done then there is a great risk that, at some point, you return to doing what you were before and make the same mistakes.

It will be interesting to see how he does.

Zharnel Hughes ran 19.73 seconds in the 200m to break John Regis' British record, a month after clocking 9.83 to smash Linford Christie's 100m mark

In the women's sprints, Dina Asher-Smith will be in contention but it's going to be tough for her.

The 2019 world 200m champion has improved over the season, running 10.85 seconds in the 100m at the London Diamond League, and is a great championship competitor.

She is always ready for the major championships and she usually produces her best performances there.

I think Asher-Smith can do well in Budapest but you have to remember that, while she is obviously very good, there are a lot of athletes who are much, much better.

That is just the reality of the situation.

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The good thing about Asher-Smith is that she focuses on herself. She manages her process very well and, while there are athletes who have run faster, they don't always produce that time on the day.

If everyone ran their fastest she would be out of the medals. But not everyone is able to do that at championships.

Asher-Smith knows that if she does what she can do, running some of her best times, she will beat some of those people.

'Winners impossible to call in wide-open sprints'

What makes the sprint events at this year's World Championships so exciting is that you cannot call them.

The women's and men's 100m could be run four times and you would get four different winners.

One of the races I'm most excited about is the women's 100m. It's wide-open and there are some real personalities, including American Sha'Carri Richardson whose season's best of 10.71 is second only to Shericka Jackson's 10.65.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is going for a sixth world 100m title, which would be a crazy achievement, while reigning 200m champion Jackson took silver behind her Jamaica team-mate last year.

A global title has evaded Marie-Josee Ta Lou so far but she is having one of her best seasons and, if she is going to win gold, this would be the year.

In the 200m, the battle between Jackson and Gabby Thomas will be a really good one.

The men's 100m is always an exciting race. The standard isn't quite as high this year but there are a lot of athletes in contention with no one individual really dominating.

It will be interesting to see if Noah Lyles, the 200m champion, can make the podium over the shorter distance, while Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala could make history as the first African man to win a world 100m medal.

Reigning world champion Fred Kerley and Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs have exchanged words over social media this year but I think you have to be in the conversation on the track to make those words actually mean something.

Marcell Jacobs and Fred Kerley fuelled excitement over an unprecedented one-on-one race in a social media exchange earlier this year

So far, Jacobs has not been in that conversation.

The Italian has only competed outdoors once this year and has not given anyone a reason to believe he can actually contend for a medal, let alone gold.

But it will be exciting to see if he can announce himself as a real contender this year. If he can, great, because we know Kerley will mix it up with words, as well as on the track.

Having personalities in the sport is great but let's not fool ourselves that it is what makes, or will save, athletics. A Netflix series isn't going to be its saviour either.

There has probably been too much emphasis on personalities since Usain Bolt left the sport.

Since Bolt retired I would argue we have had unbelievable personalities in the sport. The sport's current problem is a failure to promote itself as high-level, must-watch competition.

Everyone wants to see the best 100m runners in the world competing against each other multiple times a year, not just once every couple of years at either the Olympics or World Championships.

The sport needs to regularly showcase the absolute best of the best. Professional sports shine because they are exclusive. It's the top 1% that make the sport shine all year round.

Inclusivity at the Olympics or World Championships is fantastic. Outside of those events, competitions such as the Diamond League need to drive people to watch the major events when they arrive - and not the other way around.

Michael Johnson was speaking to BBC Sport's Harry Poole.

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