Don’t write me off. I still believe I can win medals
Asher-Smith confident of adding to haul in Budapest
DINA ASHER-SMITH is about to compete in her sixth World Championships, 10 years after her first. She is the proud owner of eight global medals, including one historic gold. But in her relentless quest for further glory, the British sprint star has never stopped to reflect on what she has already achieved.
Or at least she hadn’t until last week. At Great Britain’s pre-championships preparation camp in Slovakia there was a slogan: ‘Remember your purpose’. And athletes were asked to provide a picture showing what got them into the sport in the first place.
Asher-Smith submitted a piece of schoolwork she completed when she was eight, just after the Athens Olympics in 2004. It was a drawing of herself, on a podium, next to the words, ‘When I grow up I want to be’, she had written, ‘I want to go to the Olympics’. When Asher-Smith arrived in Samorin last week, that picture was printed and hanging in her hotel room.
‘It just made me so proud,’ she says, ‘because sometimes we keep pushing and keep being hard on ourselves. We’re pushing the edges of history and sometimes you miss by a fraction of a second.
‘So I do think it’s very handy for us as athletes to take a step back and be like, “Look what I’ve achieved”. Your eight-year-old self, if you gave her a fraction of what you’ve been able to do, they would be mindblown. They would not even believe that this can be possible.
‘I am pushing for more. I definitely think I have a lot more and I am going for more. But I’m immensely proud of what I’ve been able to achieve in my career.
‘You said eight global medals. I hadn’t even counted myself. I didn’t even know. But it is great to be in that kind of position. It feels really good.’
Asher-Smith was 17 when she made her World Championships debut — a year after she was a kit-carrier on Super Saturday at London 2012.
At the 2013 Worlds in Moscow, she ran the first leg in the 4x100metres relay. The British quartet finished fourth but were upgraded to bronze after second-placed France were disqualified, giving them their first women’s sprint relay world medal in 30 years.
‘I’ve been talking about that a lot,’ says Asher-Smith. ‘It was just so amazing to think that at 17, they trusted me enough to put me on the first leg.
‘Ten years ago — it’s really crazy. There are a lot of things I’ve learned since then. But the No 1 thing would be to believe and don’t limit yourself. When you’re in a race, remarkable things can happen.’
Asher-Smith now hopes remarkable things can happen in Budapest, having shown encouraging form this season. At the London Stadium last month, she ran 100m in 10.85sec, 0.02sec off the British record she set in winning world silver in 2019.
And yet, ahead of the 100m heats today, the bookies rate her as only fifth favourite. Ranked ahead of her are ShellyAnn Fraser-Pryce, the five-time 100m world champion, and her fellow Jamaican Shericka Jackson, Sha’Carri Richardson of the United
States and Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou.
‘We have one of the strongest and most exciting events of this
World Championships,’ Asher-Smith says. ‘I definitely think we’re in a golden age. It used to be that if somebody ran around 11.2, 11.1, it was like, “Oh my God, wow!” Now you can run 10.8 and people are like, “Oh, nice”.
‘I do think it will be remembered as kind of like a Usain Bolt era but far more competitive.’
The 200m, which AsherSmith won in 2019 to become the first British woman to secure a global sprint title, is just as competitive. AsherSmith is ranked fourth in the world, but she now also has a challenge from her own country, with Daryll Neita beating her in Stockholm last month.
Not that AsherSmith is concerned. She reckons she is ‘stronger, faster, technically better and more confident’ than in 2019. ‘I just feel really good. I’ve been feeling really good for the whole season. ‘I love championships. I like the challenge, I like the rounds. The championships really suit me. I’m genuinely really excited. I will leave it at that.’