Watch out for the Euro sprinters, says Dina Asher-Smith
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Your support makes all the difference.Dina Asher-Smith believes Europe’s leading sprinters can finally take the fight to the dominant Americans and Jamaicans over 100 metres.
Asher-Smith dipped under the 11-second barrier for the first time in her career at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday while Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers was victorious in the final.
And the 19-year-old Briton said: “I am so happy that a European athlete won – no offence to everybody else. For so long, it has been America, Jamaica and finally Dafne won and showed that European girls can sprint. We all knew that but she has really done it in the Diamond League so many times.”
Asher-Smith’s time of 10.99 in her heat took three hundredths of a second off her recent British record but she could not quite emulate that same speed in the final, where she finished fourth.
Asked if the Americans and Jamaicans would now sit up and take notice of the newest member of the sub-11 group, she said: “I guess so. I don’t know if they are looking at me. Hopefully I can improve and use the performances today and experience to take myself further.”
Schippers is a former heptathlete rival to Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who switched to the sprint events, and Asher-Smith said she was relishing their rivalry.
“Dafne is world class in seven events and the 100m and 200m,” added Asher-Smith. “She is an absolute role model and she is absolutely amazing to have from the same continent. Hopefully we will be racing quite a lot.”
UK Athletics selectors will meet today to select the team for the World Championships with one of the big questions whether to select Asher-Smith in the 100m or 200m, or possibly both.
Asher-Smith previously said she had planned to focus on the 100m in Beijing but performed a U-turn in the build-up to the Anniversary Games.
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