Commonwealth glory comes first for Dina
DINA ASHER-SMITH is set to snub home glory in the World Indoor Championships next year by focusing instead on the Commonwealth Games. The 21-year-old, who holds British records for the 100 metres and 200m, was yesterday among the marquee names announced in the huge Team England contingent for the Commonwealths on the Gold Coast next April. But in choosing to contest the 200m in Australia, she is highly unlikely to run at the worlds in Birmingham in March. ‘Because I am doing the 200m, I don’t know if the world indoors would be a good idea for me because the training for 200m and 60m is so different,’ she said. ‘When you look at it in terms of training weeks and cycles, the two events are very close together. ‘I don’t know if it will be feasible to do both and I am definitely making the Commonwealths a big competition in my season.’ Asher-Smith, who has won medals at European, world and Olympic level, added: ‘For a long time, I’ve wanted to do the Commonwealth Games. It doesn’t come around every two years. The Commonwealth Games you have to remember is one down from the Olympics and as you can see from our team list, it’s the priority for 90 per cent of the athletes.’ England named their biggest ever team for the event yesterday, with 75 athletes as part of a 600-strong delegation of competitors and staff. With the exception of CJ Ujah, who was in the 4x100m relay team who won gold at the World Championships in London last summer, the leading names in English athletics will all be competing in Australia. The pressure on the squad to deliver will be significant, with the cost of sending such a weighty delegation estimated by a team source to be in the millions.