Is Asher-smith’s best no longer good enough?
Astonishing form of Jamaican sprinters and injury problems have left Briton playing game of catch-up on the track
It cannot have been easy for Dina Asher-smith to stomach. Less than six months after becoming the first British woman to win a global sprint title in 2019, a pandemic reduced the world to lockdown. When she finally emerged from her sociallydistanced bunker a year later, injury ruined her aspirations of replicating that feat at the Tokyo Olympics.
During her absence from the track, she has been forced to watch female sprinting move to new heights from afar; a party she could not attend.
Since Asher-smith set British records to claim gold and silver medals at the 2019 World Championships, six women have run quicker than her best 100metres time, while five have bettered her 200m mark.
The big question now, as she prepares to face some of those rivals in today’s Birmingham Diamond League meeting, is just how much Asher-smith has improved in the meantime. The answer will prove crucial to her hopes of retaining her world title this summer.
“It’s been a long, long time since I ran a PB [personal best] and I’m definitely one of those people who tries to PB year on year,” said Ashersmith. “It has been annoying. But there’s a time for everything and I’m confident in the work that I’ve done.
“Just how much of a different person, different athlete I am since 2019 – it’s light-years away.
“When I peak, which is championship time, it will be amazing to lay down some really good times and good performances.”
There is every expectation that Asher-smith’s words are not merely bravado. Having improved year on year before the pandemic, she came close to breaking her own British 100m record on her final outing of 2021 in spite of the hamstring injury that ruined her Olympics.
It would be a surprise if she did not lower that mark and her national 200m record this summer. The unknown is whether that will be good enough for a world medal in a crowded field.
So astonishing have the performances of the Jamaican duo Elaine Thompson-herah and Shelly-ann Fraser-pryce been that talk has increasingly centred on Florence Griffith-joyner’s world records that have stood since 1988 and were long seen as untouchable.
Thompson-herah withdrew from today’s meet due to “discomfort in training”, but Asher-smith will still face Olympic medallists Shericka Jackson and Gabby Thomas, both of whom beat her over 200m in Doha last week. This time battle recommences over 100m.
Asked about the prospect of potentially running faster than she ever has, but still not making the world podium this summer, Ashersmith was unequivocal that medals, rather than times, were her goal.
“Records are lovely, but that isn’t ever my priority coming into a
‘When I peak it will be amazing to lay down some really good times and good performances’
championship. It’s to be successful.” With supremely fast sprint times becoming a regular occurrence globally, Asher-smith also believes Griffith-joyner’s 10.49sec and 21.34 world records are in danger. “I think so,” she said. “Everything seems impossible until it’s done.”
This is a vital summer for British athletes, with a triple header of World Championships, home Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
A healthy medal haul from Ashersmith, Keely Hodgkinson, Josh Kerr, Laura Muir, Holly Bradshaw and Katarina Johnsonthompson can provide a wave for the sport in Britain to ride for years.
Big names are in no short supply today at Alexander Stadium.
Muir will take on Jemma Reekie over 1500m, and Kerr is facing a tough field over the same distance. There will also be a first appearance of a British men’s 4x100m team since they were stripped of Olympic silver in Tokyo following CJ Ujah’s positive drugs test. Ujah remains provisionally banned while awaiting sanction.