Dina is forced to settle for second best
For dina ashersmith, finishing second yesterday to Jamaican sprint queen and 32-yearold mum shelly-ann fraserPryce served as a reality check ahead of her assault on doha.
the triple european champion and Britain’s fastest woman ran 10.92sec behind fraser-Pryce’s 10.78, as the women’s 100metres brought the anniversary Games to a close at the london stadium.
It outlined the obstacles that await asher-smith if the 23-yearold londoner is to match her european successes at World Championship level in doha in september.
Her two sub-11sec runs at yesterday’s diamond league meeting will stand her in good stead.
Having won her earlier heat with a season’s best time 10.91, ashersmith noted how fraser-Pryce,
the winner of nine world and olympic golds, sets the standard to aspire to.
‘It’s always a privilege to line up against so many fantastic women but particularly against somebody who is double olympic champion, world champion, been there, done that, got everything and knows how to do it,’ asher-smith said.
‘for me, I always try to be as close as I can — not that close today — but it’s a learning experience.’
expectations are high with asher- smith, who won the 100m and 200m at the european Championships in Berlin last year before leading Britain to victory in the 4x100m relay. she was happy enough with yesterday’s performances. ‘ It’s great for me. I’m a competitor, I always want to do as well as I can, I always want to run quicker. It’s about making sure I can improve in each race before the World Championships. to get two low 10.9s, I really can’t moan.’ there were British successes, with lynsey sharp winning the women’s 800m in 1min 58.61sec. CJ Ujah, Zharnel Hughes, richard Kilty and Nathaniel Mitchell-Blake clocked the second- fastest 4x100m time recorded by a British relay team. they ran it in in 37.60. the only quartet to have gone quicker was the gold medal-winning team at the 2017 World Championships in london, when Ujah, adam Gemili, danny talbot and Mitchell- Blake ran 37.47. Yesterday, each man was running for his place in the team in doha and Kilty said: ‘ We had fun and were relaxed and were able to let loose on every leg. that’s an amazing performance.’
lawrence okoye, the British record-holder, made his comeback in the discus, six years after quitting the sport for a career in american football.
the last time okoye competed in this stadium, it was in the 2012 olympic final. seven years since setting his 68.24m British record, the 27-year- old londoner’s best yesterday was 60.80m — not enough to trouble sweden’s daniel stahl, who won with 68.56m.
JONNY BROWNLEE, twice an olympic medallist in triathlon, won his first World series race for two years yesterday. the 29-year- old clocked 54min 52sec in edmonton, Canada. ‘It’s about time,’ he said. ‘I finally won something. I was just having bad luck after bad luck.’