DINA IS SERVED
Coe believes Asher-Smith’s golden treble will put the sport back into the spotlight
SEB COE hailed Dina AsherSmith as a godsend to athletics after her triple triumph gave the sport the kiss of life.
Asher-Smith did what no woman had done in 28 years and won three European sprint titles – each in world-leading times.
In a sport struggling to be noticed since Usain Bolt retired, her golden hat-trick could not have been more timely. “Dina has made it,” said Coe, boss of world athletics.
“She has clearly identified herself as one of the key players for next year. It’s so nice to see somebody that walks out into a stadium and you just know she’s got that crucial asset of feeling at home.”
On the eve of the championship, Greg Rutherford ruffled feathers by claiming “nobody cares” any more about athletics. “We have an issue here that the sport itself is not big in people’s eyes,” said the 2012 Olympic longjump gold medallist.
“I don’t know half the British team. The stars are still the stars who have long since retired.” It was difficult to disagree, and 18 medals from 101 competing British athletes does not, in itself, change that.
But in Asher-Smith, 22, Britain has a rare gem – one whose name was everywhere across social and mainstream media from her first race to the last. “Every sport needs its stars,” said Coe (above), who was a stellar middle-distance runner.
“We have got extraordinary talent, but our challenge is to make sure people know what that means in the global pecking order. It’s statistically tougher to do what Dina has done in track and field than in almost any other sport. “We don’t always get that across.” Part of athletics’ problem is that for too long seeing has not been believing. Katrin Krabbe, who achieved Dina’s treble in 1990, was later banned for doping. Asher-Smith appears to be an antidote to the understandable cynicism. She has been great since she was eight. There is no sudden spike in her career to suggest she is anything but the real deal.
Track legend Michael Johnson reckons she is the “complete package”, reminding him of Jamaican great ShellyAnn Fraser-Pryce.
“One of the strongest things about Dina that makes me believe she could get to the Olympic podium is her maturity and attitude,” he told the BBC.
“She can go faster and, given the times she has run here, any improvement at all and she is in medal contention, even gold-medal contention, at the World Championships and Olympics.
“Is she capable of winning gold in Tokyo? Absolutely.”
British team boss Neil Black agrees, rating her treble as better than “anything I’ve seen”. And he’s seen all Mo Farah’s global triumphs.
“Put Dina’s multiple gold medal-winning and worldleading, world-class times together,” he added.
“If her rivals worldwide are not fearful, if they are not respectful, they must be crazy. There is more to come.”