After winning silver in the 100m final, Dina Asher-Smith was in unstoppable form in the 200m final at the IAAF World Athletics Championships, becoming the first British woman to land a global sprint title.
The best performance by a Brit in the 200m prior tonight was Kathy Cook’s bronze medal at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki 1983 but Asher-Smith improved by two places with a scintillating piece of sprinting which was also rewarded with a British record of 21.88 – eclipsing her previous mark which she set at the European Championships last summer by 0.01.
Asher-Smith won three gold medals at the European Championships in Berlin last summer and she is now one medal away from leaving her second successive major championships with medals from all three events. The British relay team has won medals at the last two global championships as well as titles at the 2016 and 2018 European Championships.
The prospective favourite for the 200m title ahead of these championships, Asher-Smith – who was competing in her fourth World Championships at the age of 23 – never looked daunted by this mantle through the rounds or the final, rocketing around the bend in lane seven and slingshotting into the home straight with a clear lead.
The 23-year-old never once looked like faltering, using all of her pace and power to open up one of the most consequential winning margins in World Championships history of 0.34 – a performance which defied the fact Asher-Smith was running on weary legs after a challenging schedule with the 100m and 200m condensed into five days.
“I know I was tired and I woke up today knowing this was the last individual chance and this was the moment I did all my work for. This is what we knew we could achieve if the season went well and the tiredness just disappeared when I needed it to,” said Asher-Smith after her sixth races in five days, the first time she has contested multiple individual events in a major event.
“I think I have been categorised as a 200m sprinter because people are more used to seeing me over this distance at the World Championships but I think that has tended to be because I have been injured and I have gone for the event I am more confident in. It has always been my aim to be someone who can double up in the 100m and 200m and I’m glad I did that at the championships,” she added.