DINA’S FLAG DAY
Asher-Smith on course for World Championships
IT TAKES a fair effort to upstage Dina Asher- Smith, but Ojie Edoburun managed it with a combination of his deeds and words at the British Championships yesterday.
It was a stunning performance and upset as he won the men’s 100 metres. Not so much in the time ,10.18 sec into a strong head wind, but more the context.
The European junior champion in 2015, Edoburun has spent t he subsequent period getting beaten by his rivals or the doubts in his own mind. He was a distant outsider for this title. His assessment of himself? ‘ A bottler’. It was a withering reference to how he has done at these championships, with fourth, fourth and fifth- placed finishes following his breakthrough placing of third in 2015.
In the space of a day here he won a national title ahead of Adam Gemili and Zharnel Hughes, won a place in the World Championships team and then issued a sensible and pointed view of the Christian Coleman situation. A good effort, indeed.
After his victory had reduced him to tears, Edoburun, 23 ( right), said: ‘ I have had so many setbacks. Not injuries per se but the psychology of athletics. To have a tough head is something that has taken me four years to figure out.
‘ I had to make some really tough sacrifices. And to cross the line to be a champion it makes all the stressful times worth it. I have always bottled it at the champs — I am so lucky I not only overcame the competition but my own mental demons.’
His prize is a place in Doha next month, having missed out on selection for the worlds in London in 2017. He called that the lowest point of his career, and it led to decisions to change coach and hire a psychologist before then ditching his relay funding in favour of focusing on individual sprints. Edoburun, Gemili and European champion Hughes will all have an easier task if Coleman, the American favourite, is kept from competing because of three missed drugs tests. When asked about Coleman’s potential absence, Edoburun said: ‘I cannot speak on him because I don’t know him but I am on the whereabouts system with UKA and I just feel like missing three tests is easily avoidable. I know that, so he should know that if he is the fastest man in the world.’
Coleman, who protests his innocence, will have a hearing on September 4 to determine if he is cleared to run at the World Championships.
Asher-Smith’s result in the women’s 100m was predictable. She has been in imperious form this season with four sub- 11sec times in her four races.
That streak ended with an 11.03sec run in the semi-final, but she was in scintillating form as she won the final ahead of Asha Philip in 10.96sec, and a championship record made more impressive because she was running into a headwind.