Dina Digs Deep

DINA ASHER-SMITH HAS LEARNED SOME VALUABLE LESSONS IN 2017 AND TELLS EUAN CRUMLEY ABOUT HER PRIDE AT BATTLING BACK AFTER INJURY

- Euan Crumley

DINA ASHER-SMITH won’t be forgetting 2017 in a hurry. Not only will she look back on it as the year in which she graduated from university, but also as the one when she received an education about herself and discovered some reserves of strength and character she didn’t quite know she had.

The world championships year had begun in hope and expectation but, in February, during her last training session before the Müller Indoor Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham, the British record-holder over 100m and 200m landed awkwardly on her foot and fractured it. From that point on she was involved in a race to be fit for London.

That she even made it to the IAAF World Championships start line is quite an achievement in itself when you consider how painful and daunting the rehabilitation process was. She was only back jogging in June, after all.

The level of performances she has produced since returning to the track gets even more impressive given that this was all being balanced with studies, dissertations, exams and everything else that comes with completing a history degree at King’s College in London, from which she emerged with a 2:1.

Since London 2017, during which she narrowly missed out on bronze in the 200m and won silver in the 4x100m, Asher-Smith has continued to impress on the track with performances such as her recent 200m victory over world silver medallist Marie-Josée Ta Lou at the IAAF Challenge meeting in Berlin. The season ended on a winning note, too, over 150m at the Great North CityGames.

You could understand if the 21-year old felt like it was all coming to an end too soon but she admits that a break is most definitely required. Now it’s time for a trip to Rome, Venice and Anguilla, one of the islands to have been hit by Hurricane Irma and home to the family of her boyfriend, fellow sprinter Zharnel Hughes. “They are okay,” she says.