Tokyo Olympics: Dina Asher-Smith pulls out of the 200m after failing to qualify for 100m final
GB sprint star Dina Asher-Smith breaks down in tears as she PULLS OUT of the 200m after failing to qualify for the 100m final – and reveals she almost didn’t make it to Tokyo because of hamstring tear
Dina Asher-Smith broke down in tears on Saturday after her Olympic dreams were wrecked by a hamstring injury.
The leading lady of British athletics failed to progress from the 100m semi-finals and then immediately pulled out of the 200m after revealing she has been battling a badly torn hamstring since the national trials last month.
While damage to her hamstring has been known since she pulled out of a race in Gateshead less than three weeks ago, the severity had been kept a close secret.
But it became devastatingly obvious that the 25-year-old was way off her pace in Friday’s heats and then the semi-finals on Saturday, where she ran only 11.05sec and finished third. After her elimination she indicated she still intends to pursue a podium finish in the 4x100m relay, but her bid to become Britain’s first female sprint medallist at an Olympics since 1960 is on hold until Paris 2024.
A heartbroken Dina Asher-Smith announced she will be pulling out of the 200m
Asher-Smith failed to make the 100m final and revealed she had a hamstring tear weeks ago
The 200m world champion, speaking shortly before Elaine Thompson-Herah won gold in an Olympic record 10.61sec, said: ‘It broke my heart because I am a competitor. It is the Olympics but there are plenty other championships for me to come and kill.
‘It’s been a crazy, intense and heart-breaking period. I was in the shape of my life. Without a doubt. I’m not trying to sound arrogate but that is where I was. If you had asked me six weeks ago, I was confident I was going to win this entire thing.’
In detailing the injury, Asher-Smith revealed she was diagnosed with a complete rupture of her hamstring after the British Championships on June 26, before that was softened after a desperate visit to the controversial Munich-based doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt.
Asher-Smith couldn’t contain her emotions as she spoke to the BBC about her injury troubles
She then spent time on crutches and was unable to train in spikes until just 10 days ago.
She said: ‘I was told that day (at the British Championships) it was a rupture so that my hamstring and tendon were no longer attached and I would need surgery, and it would be three or four months until I walk again and then a year to sprinting.
‘That day I was just in floods of tears. That was a difficult 48-72 hours for me. It was insane. At that point I had a statement written, I probably still have it on my phone, ready to go out just before selection. I wasn’t going to be selected.
Asher-Smith finished behind Elaine Thompson-Herah and Ajla del Ponte in her semi-final
Daryll Neita finished fourth in her semi-final and beat Asher-Smith to the fastest loser place
‘I decided to go to the best sports doctors it the world in Germany to get an opinion on what kind of surgery I should have, whether if there was some hamstring left or whether I should have a plastic of metal attachment.
‘I had a call from the doctor in Germany saying I’ve looked at your scans and you need to get here because while you have torn it I don’t think it’s a rupture and if we get on it and really push there’s a chance you could be on the line in Tokyo.
‘I started crying and called the sectors saying, ‘Select me, select me if there’s a chance’.
‘I was on crutches, off crutches, learning how to fully extend it again, walk, drills, jog, run. We’re counting down.
‘We came back to the UK as it was time to fly to Toyko. I came on July 20 and put on spikes on the 21st and said lets go.’
Neita made the final by just one thousandth of a second ahead of Asher-Smith’s time
Despite Asher-Smith’s brave efforts to get on the start line, she was far off her personal best of 10.83sec in running 11.07sec in the heats and only managed to go marginally quicker in the semi-finals, where she was eliminated.
Breaking down in tears, Asher-Smith added: ‘The easiest thing would have been to turn around and say I’m not going to get on the plane – that would have saved my pride, it would have saved everything. But at the end of the day I’m an incredibly talented sprinter and I know what kind of calibre of athlete I am.
‘I’ve been dreaming about this for so long. It was just unless I couldn’t stand or do anything on that leg it wasn’t an option for me to give up because this is my life.’
Asked if she would contest the 4x100m relay on Friday, she said: ‘I’m doing the relay, 11.05 is incredibly useful in a relay leg.’
