Dina’s smiling again after pain of losing her grandma
Briton overcomes grief to win bronze in lightning-fast 200m
The tears in her eyes were due to both happiness and sadness. On Thursday night in Oregon, Dina Asher-Smith was justifiably elated after winning bronze in the world 200metres final.
But amid the euphoria was heartache as she remembered her grandmother, Sislyn, who died in May.
‘My life is never going to be the same and I’m never going to be the same because we were so close,’ said Asher- Smith. ‘ But she’d want me to come here and be in as good a mental shape as I can. I know I’ve done her proud.’
Asher- Smith certainly did. having been edged out of the medals in the 100m final despite a British record of 10.83sec, the 26- year- old produced another polished, powerful performance to clock 22.02sec in a loaded final.
Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson took gold in 21.45sec, the second fastest time in history, while 100m champion Shelly-Ann FraserPryce won silver in 21.81sec.
‘I’m so amazingly happy with this,’ said Asher- Smith, who chose not to speak about her grandmother until after this final. The reason?
‘I would have cried,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t have spoken about it. It has been so tough, so tough.’
Raised in Trinidad, Sislyn Asher had come to Britain in the postwar period, working as a nurse at Lewisham hospital for most of her life. She was not an athlete but, as Asher-Smith put it: ‘She’ll 100 per cent say the sprinting talent is from (her).’
Asher- Smith said Sislyn was ‘very cheeky, very bubbly, just like me’ and, given their birthdays were two days apart, they always had a joint celebration. She died at the age of 92, just before the Doha Diamond League in May where Asher-Smith finished third over 200m in 22.37sec.
her loss cut deep. Physically, Asher-Smith had been in great shape over the past two months.
Mentally, she was all over the place. ‘I wasn’t in the room, it felt like I was watching myself do stuff,’ she said.
‘Most of the season I had to take myself from being psychologically so profoundly sad to just being OK to race. But when you’re at this calibre, being OK to race isn’t good enough, you need to be excellent.’
Asher-Smith worked with the team psychologist at the British holding camp to get her ‘brain and body on the same page’ ahead of the championships. ‘I know my grandma would want me to be performing absolutely amazingly,’ said Asher-Smith. ‘I was always fuelled by the fact she’d want me to be focused, to work as hard as I can. She’d want me to stand up there with my head held high.’
While it might not have been the gold she won at the last World Champs, to be back on the medal rostrum — after the year she has had — felt just as good.
As for that winning time, second only to the dubious 21.34sec set by Florence Griffith- Joyner in 1988? ‘Yeah it’s mad,’ said Asher-Smith. ‘It’s crazy, it’s so fast. It’s a target, something we’re pushing for and working towards. You know me, progress is never done.’
After bagging one medal, AsherSmith is looking for more this summer. She will race the 100m and 4x100m relay at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, then target next month’s europeans in Munich.
‘ I’m always going to be a championship girl,’ she said. ‘I’m excited to keep pushing on on.’ ’ And she will do so with her grandmother’s memory foremost in her mind. ‘ My whole family wouldn’t be who we are without her, her hard work, sacrifices for us,’ she said. ‘I know she is so happy right now.’