Given the doldrums British female sprinting was in before her emergence, it was perhaps little surprise that Dina Asher-Smith stood largely unchallenged on the national stage for the best part of her 20s. So, it was to some raised eyebrows that the country’s sprint queen was usurped by Amy Hunt last summer – the young upstart claiming world championships 200m silver, while Asher-Smith faded to fifth.
The former world 200m champion could – but notably chose not to – point to the mitigating circumstances of a turbulent mid-season return to England after a training move to America gone wrong. But the changing of the guard felt significant: one athlete on the up and the other on the decline. Or was she?
Now back in Texas, albeit with a different coach to the one she left last summer, Asher-Smith has spent the winter, during which she turned 30, running with notably renewed vigour. A few swift early-season performances paved the way for this first appearance at the UK Indoor Championships in a decade, and a return to her throne looked a certainty from the moment she stepped on the Birmingham track on Saturday.
A time of 7.17sec in the heats preceded 7.11 in the semi-finals and then an utterly dominant 7.05 – a championship record – to triumph in the final, well clear of Hunt, who clocked 7.15 for silver. The winning time was the third-quickest of Asher-Smith’s career. Who thought it wise to suggest the best might be behind her?
“I’ve learned so much about myself over the past few years,” she said. “I’m somebody who runs fast when I’m happy. I’m really enjoying training in this environment, but most importantly I’ve got to be happy in myself. I think you’re seeing that.
“Last year was very tough. But I’ve changed as a person, and I think I gained a lot of confidence from that because to be disappointed that I didn’t medal [at the world championships] when you have training disruptions like that … I was just proud that psychologically I could handle it.”
She will now head to next month’s World Indoor Championships in Poland, alongside Hunt, whose strongest suit remains over longer sprint distances. “Obviously, it’s not nice to lose to one of your biggest rivals, so I’m slightly frustrated,” Hunt said. “But on the plus side, we are getting a lot more consistent. For me to be frustrated with a 7.15 shows how far I have come in the last 12 months.
“No one still expects anything from me in the 60s, so I get to go out there and just have fun. If I can keep this momentum rolling, I will be super happy.”
Asher-Smith’s winning margin was significantly greater than in the men’s equivalent, in which reigning world and European 60m champion Jeremiah Azu had to fight to the line to see off Romell Glave, clocking 6.56 to the silver medallist’s 6.62.
The day’s leading performance emerged from what effectively became a first-round time trial. With the British selection policy for the World Indoor Championships merely requiring athletes to turn up and compete here in Birmingham, Keely Hodgkinson had announced earlier in the week that she would contest only the 800m heats and not Sunday’s final.
With only one opportunity to impress, the Olympic champion produced a phenomenal solo performance to break her own British indoor record with a winning time of 1min 56.33sec, the third-fastest indoor time in history.
Instead of lining up for the final, she will take on a high-class field next week at a meeting in France, where she has her sights set on breaking the world record of 1:55.82 that was set on the day she was born – 3 March 2002.
“I have high hopes for next week,” she said. “I’ve been trying to get it for years. I think I’m very capable of doing it. I’ve had my healthiest winter in years, I haven’t missed a single thing, and I think that shows it. I feel like it’s destined to be mine – I feel like it would be great if I can break it.”
