World Athletics Championships: More history in the making for dazzling Dina Asher-Smith after 200m gold

Asher-Smith celebrates after winning Britain's first ever female world sprint title
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Before Dina Asher-Smith won an historic first global sprint medal by a British woman, the BBC dissected clips of her at major championships to see how she had evolved.

In the warm-up area before the 200metre final last night, the former King’s College London history student was using her own past as inspiration — in particular, her run as a 17-year-old to a surprise bronze medal in the 4x100m relay at her first World Championships in 2013.

“I used my younger self as reference,” she said. “When I was in the warm-up area, I thought back to the first championships in Moscow and being so scared, holding the baton with sweaty hands and thinking it would fall out. I told myself I’m never again going to be that unprepared and nervous.”

But in terms of winding back the clock, Asher-Smith was adamant that London 2017 held the key to last night’s golden success in the 200m. That year, she had broken her foot, got back to fitness in time and surprised many to make the final of the same event, where she finished fourth.

Asked when she knew it was possible to beat the world’s best, she said: “After London.” In the intervening two years, she and her coach, John Blackie, who has worked with her since the age of eight, plotted how exactly to go about it.

World Athletics Championships: Day six

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Following the lowering of her own British record last night to 21.88sec to comfortably win a first world title, the 23-year-old admitted she had started thinking about next year’s Olympics long before Doha.

“Even if I’d not won today or these championships had not gone to plan, I start every new season looking to find ways to improve, leaving no stone unturned and working really, really hard,” she said. “The Olympics is less than a year away, so we’ve already been thinking about it. When the last one ends, we start thinking about the next one — and there’s no time where I’m not thinking about the Olympics. I’ve been thinking about Doha and looking forward to the Olympics as well.”

It is, perhaps, an omen that Asher-Smith has won her first global title at the same age as Britain’s last two female Olympic champions — Jessica Ennis-Hill and Christine Ohuruogu — had won their first World Championships. Within three years, Ennis-Hill was winning at London 2012, while Ohuruogu took just 12 months to convert Worlds success to the Olympics.

And Asher-Smith made no secret of her desire to emulate both, while revealing how supportive both have been. “I admire them so much,” she said. “The things they achieved are such an inspiration and to have them encouraging me in this competition, I’d just say thank you very much.”

Asher-Smith is all too aware that, come Tokyo, the 200m field will be infinitely stronger, the likes of Elaine Thompson, Dafne Schippers and Shaunae Miller-Uibo all missing from the Qatar starting line through a mixture of injury and choice. Yet, she is confident she can get better: “I’m getting stronger and more experience physically and mentally, so hopefully there’s more to come.”

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