Dina Asher-Smith has looked like a shadow of her former self at these Games.
The 28-year-old has struggled for her best form at the Stade de France. She failed to make the final of the 100m last week after clocking a disappointing time of 11.1sec in her semi-final.
And she cut an unhappy figure when she was well short of American Gabby Thomas in Monday night’s semi-finals of the 200m.
Thomas is the overwhelming favourite for gold, so it is perhaps wrong to compare like for like, but Asher-Smith, a former world champion for the distance, looks set to miss out on being in medal contention tonight.
She had continued to talk positively up until last night, when she opted for near-enough silence after her 200m run of 22.31sec.
All she said was: “It was good, because I didn’t use much energy. I’m saving what I can for tomorrow.”
And yet she has been the benchmark for British sprinting — male or female — for years now. She has two Olympic medals and six medals at World Championship level, so a backlog of work to suggest she is a championship performer, able to repeatedly deliver on the biggest stage. Plus, the 200m has habitually been her stronger event.
Asher-Smith ended her long-time coaching relationship with John Blackie last year and relocated to the United States in the wake of last year’s World Championships, where she trains with the likes of Julien Alfred, the sprinter from St Lucia who sealed the 100m gold.
The hope is that Alfred’s success may yet rub off over the longer distance, although Asher-Smith finds herself in a fight to be even Britain’s fastest woman with Daryll Neita.
Neita reached the final of the 100m and finished fourth, and was just shy of her personal best in a time of 22.24sec in the 200m semi-finals, an event in which she currently lacks the experience of Asher-Smith.
I am feeling happy and overwhelmed about how I performed in the 100m, so I am just carrying that confidence and energy into the 200m
Having reached both sprint finals, Neita said: “I qualified for the final, so that’s all I need to say. Two finals, you can’t knock that.
“It’s an amazing achievement and, after a couple of nights, I am feeling happy and overwhelmed about how I performed in the 100m, so I am just carrying that confidence and energy into the 200m. That’s all I can do at this point.
“Once you are in that race [the final], anything can happen. It’s an open race, once we get on the start line, it’s open. I just need to go into that race headstrong and perform my best.”
Of the three Britons in last night’s semi-finals, the only one not to make it through was Bianca Williams, who clocked a season’s best but came up short in her bid to make the final.
