Hitting her stride
Dina Asher-Smith continued her fine form ahead of the Olympics this summer as she made it nine consecutive wins in 2021 as she took first place at the Diamond League meeting in Florence on Thursday.
The 200m world champion set a season’s-best time of 22.06 seconds at the meeting, a time just 0.03 seconds slower than the fastest run by anyone this year. This was run by Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
The brilliant run comes just days after Asher-Smith qualified comfortably for the 100m at the Olympics as well, running an impressive 10.92 seconds at the FBK Games in Hengelo. She won silver in this event at the 2019 World Championships.
👑 She's done it again!@dinaashersmith continues her Olympic campaign with 100m victory in 10.92s 🙌#ContinentalTourGold @FBKGamesHengelo pic.twitter.com/8e6isoFi5A
— Team GB (@TeamGB) June 6, 2021
Asher-Smith is undoubtedly going to be the poster girl for Team GB at this summer’s games. Her run on Thursday demonstrated how she seems to be peaking just in time for Tokyo, and she will almost certainly be the clear favourite to claim the gold medal in Japan at her favourite event, the 200m.
However, she’ll have her eyes on the shorter distance as well. In May she won the 100m against a strong field at the Gateshead Diamond League meeting, beating two of her main rivals for the 100m Olympic title in the form of sprinting legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and rising American star Sha’Carri Richardson.
After this win Asher-Smith said: “I was really happy to start my 100m season with a win. It was far from ideal conditions [but] this is good practice for staying in the moment.
“It is essential to race the best. The only way to get race-fit is to race the best in the world. These are the type of races you want to be in.”
Fraser-Pryce laid down her own marker on Wednesday though. The Jamaican became the second-fastest woman in history as she ran a 10.63-second 100m at a meeting in Kingston. Asher-Smith described it as “amazing” for athletics.
Safe to say that it could be an amazing summer for Dina, as she seeks her first Olympic medal in Tokyo to go alongside her World Championship ones.
We’ve been fortunate to film with some of Team GB’s sporting stars recently, thanks to the National Lottery. Here’s our very own Alex Roberts speaking to 110m hurdler Andrew Pozzi:
"You're starting on these ones mate. Baby ones." 👶
We trained with star Team GB hurdler @Andrew_Pozzi in Loughborough, where he showed us what it takes to leap to glory in the 110m 🏃♂️ 🚧
w/ @lottogoodcauses pic.twitter.com/bFy3bpCjEm
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) May 5, 2021
