I am proud but I must go faster, says Asher-smith
In a year that included becoming a triple European champion, setting national records in the 100metres and 200m and winning two Commonwealth medals, Dina Ashersmith still finds accepting praise for her accomplishments difficult.
On Monday the 23-year-old was named the BT Sport Action Woman of the Year, but Asher-smith told The Daily Telegraph that she was not getting ahead of herself as she still needs to face up to the world’s best sprinters to achieve the goals she has in mind for herself.
“I’m really happy and proud but I’m under no illusions. It was the Europeans – it wasn’t the Worlds, it wasn’t the Olympics,” she said.
“I’ve still got other girls in the world that are in front of me and I have to run fast to do well against them in Doha [World Championships 2019] and Tokyo [Olympics 2020], so obviously that’s what I’m working every day towards. I do feel honoured to be recognised, but I’ve still got to run faster.”
To put her achievements into context, both her world leading times in the 100m (10.85sec shared with Ivorian Marie-josee Ta Lou) and 200m (21.89sec set in Berlin in August) would have proved quick enough for the world titles in 2017. However, this year was considered an “off-season” for leading sprint nations such as Jamaica, with no major meetings at which to peak.
At the Commonwealth Games in April, in perhaps the best field she faced all year, Asher-smith held on for bronze in the 200m, beating the likes of reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson, of Jamaica, but coming in behind Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and the Bahamas’ Shaunae Miller-uibo.
Miller-uibo, 24, remained Ashersmith’s main competitor throughout the year, as the only woman to go unbeaten in 2018 after finishing in front of the Briton to win the 200m at the final meeting of the Diamond League season in Zurich.
Those results, as well as Ashersmith’s fourth place in the 200m at the World Championships in 2017 – where she was seven hundredths of a second slower than bronze medallist Miller-uibo – help to keep her feet firmly on the ground.
She even said on Monday that she “felt bad” to be named BT’S Action Woman of the Year, as she saw Lizzy Yarnold’s defence of her Olympic title in the skeleton at the Winter Olympics as far outweighing her own achievements.
In a sport often characterised by over-brimming confidence, Ashersmith’s humility and realism clearly remain unaltered by her remarkable year. “It’s track and field – you can be world leader this year and then injured the next, or three girls will run faster than you and you don’t even get a medal.
“It’s a very humbling sport, you really can’t afford to sit on your laurels. So life [since the Europeans] has been pretty much the same – my coach is still trying to work me into an early grave,” she said.
Her eyes are already on the World Championships next September and breaks are not an option – not even for her birthday yesterday. “I’ve got a complete day off, minus the training – training doesn’t count. Maybe I’ll have some cake though.
“It’s all about trying to push myself and reach my full potential.”