FLO-JO’S RECORD CAN FALL, SAYS DINA

DINA ASHER-SMITH believes the controversial 100-metre world record set by Florence Griffith Joyner could finally fall to the combination of a golden generation of female sprinters and escalating technology. It has been 34 years since Flo-Jo blitzed a 10.49-second run at the 1988 Olympic trials — a mark that has endured despite allegations around performance-enhancing drugs and faulty trackside wind readings. After more than three decades of that record seeming untouchable, the Jamaican duo of Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.54sec) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.60sec) have moved within touching distance. The contentious advances in spike technologies and track surfaces have given rise to the possibility that the record could fall at this summer’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, with Britain’s 200m world champion Asher-Smith saying: ‘I believe someone can break it, given the advantages of technology and track technology. Everything seems impossible until it’s done.’ Asher-Smith will contest the 100m at a star-studded Diamond League meet in Birmingham today after an underwhelming season-opener in Doha last week. She faces the American Cambrea Sturgis, who has delivered the quickest time in the world this season (10.87sec). Scottish pair Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie go head to head in the 1500m, while Tokyo bronze medallist Josh Kerr faces Ethiopia’s world indoor champion Samuel Tefera in the men’s race.