During the 11.02 seconds that passed between the smoky clap of the starter’s pistol and Dina Asher-Smith smashing the British 100m record in Hengelo in May she took 47 steps. Away from the track, though, the 19-year-old’s feet rarely leave the ground for that long. “Right now I’m doing well but my times are not that special,” she insists. That is disputable. Her achievements are not.
Over a giddy and steadily vertiginous 12 months Asher-Smith has become the world junior 100m champion, the quickest teenager over 60m in history and set the second-fastest 200m time by a British athlete when pushing the Olympic champion Allyson Felix and US sprinter Jeneba Tarmoh all the way in Birmingham last month. This time last year, athletics insiders would whisper about Asher-Smith’s potential as if they possessed a major secret. Nowadays her talent is shouted from the rooftops every time she competes.
More impressive still, her recent success has come while juggling intense training with the searching demands of the first year of a history degree from King’s College, London, which included 19 essays and a series of exams. “I found it quite stressful at first because not only did I have to make the transition from A-levels but my training load also went up too,” she says. “But while it’s been a crazy year, much of my life hasn’t changed. I have the same coaches, the same friends, and I still live at home with my parents.”
And you still have your mum telling you to tidy up your bedroom? “Definitely,” she laughs. “She told me again yesterday morning. I was like, ‘Mum, I’ve got to go, it’s only 6am’. I get into so much trouble if I even think of leaving the bath mat on the floor.”
Her coach John Blackie is another major influence. “If I started acting like a diva he would be like, ‘Who do you think you are?’” she says. “Even if I wanted to, there’s no way I could grow a massive ego.”
Asher-Smith’s outdoor season is only just getting into its stride, yet she is in the top 10 in the 2015 world rankings for the 200m and the top 20 for the 100m. When she runs over 100m at the British Championships this weekend she will be as warm a favourite as the weather. Given a favourable wind on a fast track, she could become the first British woman to dip under the 11-second barrier for the 100m. But she is not getting carried away. “It’s a stacked field,” she says, pointing to the likes of Asha Philip, Bianca Williams and Desiree Henry as potential dangers. “I’m not thinking about times – I just know I need to have a good day otherwise the others will beat me.”
So how does she square her unassuming nature with the hyper-confidence every sprinter needs when their adrenaline is playing giddy-up before the start? “It’s a really difficult question,” she says. “Because you have to feel like you belong. You have to tell yourself that you are there for a reason. Usually in my head I am saying, ‘Do yourself justice,’ or ‘Don’t come last!’ It’s very weird that I’m now in the world’s top 20 for both the 100m and 200m.
“At the same time, it helps that away from the track I’m kind of chilled about most things. I rarely get angry or stressed. I’m always like: I’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.”
The only blip in Asher-Smith’s season came two weeks ago at the European Team Championships in Cheboksary, Russia. Having run in the 4x100m relay, she was forced to pull out of the 200m the following day due to a stomach bug. “I woke up in the early hours shaking,” she says. “I couldn’t walk and was doubled up in pain. Thankfully it passed a couple of days later … Well, more than a couple.”
Thankfully Asher-Smith has recovered and took time out from training this week to light the flame at the London Youth Games, an event she took part in as a 13- and 14-year-old, and believes is a “great feeder for British international teams down the road”. The immediate future, however, is never far from her thoughts. Her goal is to win the 100m in the British trials to earn automatic qualification to the world championships in Beijing in August. Given she holds the fastest 200m time by a Briton as well, it will give her the choice of which event to do. “I’d love to double up in the future but right now I think I would be better focusing on just one event,” she says.
Others looking to book their place on the plane to Beijing include James Dasaolu and CJ Ujah, who face each other in a lively men’s 100m, and Zharnel Hughes – dubbed “the next Usain Bolt” – who recently switched his allegiance from Anguilla to Great Britain. It will also be worth keeping an eye on Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the long jump and Christine Ohuruogu in the 400m. Meanwhile if Jessica Ennis-Hill breaks the 13-second mark in the 100m hurdles against world championships bronze medallist Tiffany Porter it might nudge her closer to the heptathlon in Beijing.
The Balfour Beatty London Youth Games are at Crystal Palace this weekend. See londonyouthgames.org or follow @ldnyouthgames
