Record-breaking Asher-smith ready to take leading role on world stage

Over the eight years they have worked together, Dina Ashersmith’s coach John Blackie has seen the young sprinter produce some spectacular exploits – many of them unprecedented by a British woman.

She has won world and European junior 100m titles, formed part of British relay quartets that claimed Olympic and world medals, won European 200m gold and become the fastest British woman of all time over 100m and 200m. So when the 22-year-old lowered her own national 100m record to 10.92 seconds earlier this month – no other British woman has broken the 11-second barrier – Blackie was impressed but far from surprised.

“Dina has performed quite well,” he said of recent performances that have put her alongside the fastest women in the world this year. “I am a master of understatement, but she’s done OK.”

But as the person responsible for honing the talents of Britain’s greatest female sprinter, surely there are moments of heightened emotions watching her repeatedly break new ground? “I do get excited when I watch her – there’s no question about it,” Blackie told Telegraph Sport. “It’s just my excitement might not show quite as much as others.”

It is a mark of Asher-smith’s excellence that thoughts of anyone spoiling her party when she contests the 100m at this weekend’s British Championships are little short of fanciful. Relay team-mates Asha Philip, Daryll Neita and Imani Lansiquot, will prove her biggest threats, but all three are realistically running for second place.

It is a marked change from this time last year, when Asher-smith had not raced for around five months, during which time she had a metal pin inserted into a broken foot. The injury meant she was only able to finish sixth in Birmingham, but that is all in the past.

If her 10.92sec British record in Oslo was proof that she is running fitter and faster than ever, her follow-up performance in Stockholm a week later was arguably more impressive. Running into a slight headwind, she clocked 10.93 to beat a loaded Diamond League field.

“I actually thought the Stockholm run was better than Oslo,” said Blackie. “Clearly she was running into the wind in Stockholm and had that been the same track conditions [as Oslo] she probably would have gone sub-10.90.”

Those are the types of times that mean Britain has a genuine medal contender on the global stage.

Asher-smith will double up over 100m and 200m at the European Championships in August – and she is currently the fastest woman over both distances in Europe this year.

Meanwhile, former Polish sprinter Irena Szewinska, who won three Olympic gold medals during the 1960s and 70s, has died aged 72.