DINAMITE
Glory night as Asher-Smith wins in record time and Hughes makes it a GB golden double
DINA ASHER-SMITH and Zharnel Hughes struck double sprint gold on a historic night for Britain at the European Championships.
Never had Britain won both 100metre titles before Asher-Smith scorched to glory – then Hughes, her ex-boyfriend, repeated the trick.
On a red-hot evening in the German capital, Asher-Smith smashed her own British record to win in 10.85 seconds.
Hughes had to work harder to dispatch fast-finishing teammate Reece Prescod, pipping him by 0.01secs to snatch the men’s title in a time of 9.95.
“I am so happy,” said Asher-Smith, 22, after a time good enough to have won the world title in London last summer. “To run a 10.8 in the championships is a big deal.
“I knew I had it in me and I did everything right. I am so happy to nail it in the final because I know there were so many talented people around me.”
Incredibly, Asher-Smith, a kit-box carrier at London 2012, broke her foot only 18 months ago.
In an Olympic Stadium touched by the genius of Jesse Owens and Usain Bolt before her, she was unstoppable.
She even did the decent thing and tipped her rivals off about what was to come by clocking 10.93 in her semi-final.
But that looked positively pedestrian compared with what followed.
Not since Dorothy Hyman was crowned champion in 1962 had a British woman won the blue-riband event.
Asher-Smith is now hot favourite to emulate the achievement of Katrin Krabbe 28 years ago and go through the card – adding the 200 and sprint relay titles.
Hughes, 23, has looked a million dollars all year, despite being shot at during an attempted robbery in January and having a gold medal taken off him at the Commonwealth Games. In London last month he became the first British athlete in 24 years to break 10 seconds twice in one day.
And here, as the 10,000m finalists kicked off about a lack of bottled water in temperatures topping 32 degrees, he breezed into the showpiece barely breaking sweat.
Relief mixed with joy however following a final in which CJ Ujah fell 0.05secs short of completing an unprecedented British 1-2-3.
“I felt a bit of cramp so I don’t think I could have gone any faster,” said Hughes. “But the job is done.”