DINA ASHER-SMITH IS THE FIRST CHAMPION AT THE XI MEETING CITTA’ DI GAVARDO

DINA ASHER-SMITH IS THE FIRST CHAMPION AT THE XI MEETING CITTA’ DI GAVARDO

The XI Meeting Città di Gavardo – Memorial Max Corso is approaching; and one month and a few days to go are the right time to come to a first showdown.

Just this morning the organizing commitee has officially announced that the British champion Dina Asher-Smith will be attending this sports event, thus opening her outdoor campaign on the fast track of the stadium located in via Orsolina Avanzi. “For this year’s edition we have had pretty soon a great opportunity to sign on a worldwide well-known athlete”, explains Antonio Gugole, President of Atletica Gavardo 90. “The negotiations for Asher-Smith have been quite short and strongly wanted by both the involved parties; and I would like to thank once again her manager for his precious cooperation. During the last season she was one of the best and fastest sprinter in the world; and thanks to her participation our Gavardo Meeting enters by full right upon a new era.”

Born in 1995 in London, Dina Asher-Smith is a university student – she is attending History at the King’s College in London, who will be running the 100m in Gavardo. Member of Blackheath & Bromley Harriers Athletic Club and coached by John Blackie since 2010, she holds four senior and three junior UK records, got two Junior European and one Junior World titles, one indoor European silver medal and one World bronze medal.

After the seventh place in the 200m final at the 2012 Junior World Championships in Barcelona, where she run her new personal best time of 23”50 seconds, her career blossomed out during the following year.

At the 2013 European Junior Championships in Rieti she got indeed two continental titles: After running 23”14 secs in her heat, on July 20th she top stepped the podium by running 23”29 secs in the 200m final – thus beating her team-mate Desiree Henry (23”56) and the Dutch Tessa Van Schagen (23”65). And she doubled on the following day by winning the 4x100 relay European gold medal along with team-mates Yasmin Miller, Steffi Wilson and Desiree Henry with the time of 43”81 secs, thus setting the new UK Junior record.

Just in consequence of these results, she was the youngest athlete selected by BAA for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Squad for the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, on the occasion of which on August 18th she got the bronze medal in the 4x100 relay after the disqualification of the French team – Ashleigh Nelson, Annabelle Lewis and Hayley Jones were her team-mates: They run 42”87 secondsscoring third just behind Jamaica (41”29) and USA (42”75, the same time run by the UK squad in its heat).

During the following year, Dina Asher-Smith set two U20 national records. At the Indoor British Championships in Sheffield she run 7”22 secs in her 60m heat, thus breaking by 12 seconds the previous UK record she was holding. On the following day, March 2nd, she scored the 200m best UK performance: 23”15 secs after having won both her heat and her semi-final earlier in the day – runs of 23”65 seconds and of 23”64 seconds respectivel. And on this occasion too, she improved the previous national record held by Amy Spencer, i.e. 23”44 secs dating back to 2003 that she had also run a few weeks before.

On July 23rd, her 2014 pride and joy: At the Junior World Championships in Eugene she won the 100m gold medal running 11”23 secs in the final (11”18 secs in her heat and 11”31 in the semi final), thus defeating Angela Tenorio from Ecuador (11”39) and Kaylin Whitney from the USA (11”45).

In 2015 Dina Asher-Smith has finally been put the final seal in athletics.

After a tough haed to head with Dafne Schippers (NED) and Verena Sailer (GER) from the very first heats, on March 8th she got the silver medal at 60m at the European Indoor Championships in Prague. Her final 7”08 secs became the new national record formerly held by Asha Philip (7”09, 2014), and allowed her to be the fastest teenager ever at that race – the competition had been won by the Dutch athlete, whose 7”05 secs was the best performance in 2015, while the German sprinter finished third – 7”10.

The Asher-Smith – Schippers fight was back on stage on July 25th at the IAAF Diamond League in London. They both secured a place in the 100m final, which has been won once again by the Dutch sprinter (10”92); Blessing Okagbare, NIG, finished second (10”98), Murielle Ahouré, CIV, scored third (11”01), while the British athlete was at the foot of the podium (11”06). But Dina Asher-Smith had been particularl impressive in her heat: She run 10”99 seconds, setting therefore the new national record previously held by Montell Duoglas (11”05, 2008) and becoming the first British woman breaking the 11” seconds wall at the 100m.

The World Championships in Bejing too had two new national records in store for the young athlete. On August 28th she broke the long-lasting record at 200m (22”10) set by Kathy Cook in Los Angeles in 1984; After running 22”22 secs in her heat and 22”12 secs in the semi-final, Dina Asher-Smith scored fifth in the final with the time of 21”63 seconds.

And on the following day, the Great Britain and Norther Ireland 4x100 relay squad (Asha Philip, Dina Asher-Smith, Jodie Williams and Desiree Henry) finished fourth behind Jamaica (41”07), Stati Uniti (41”68) and Trinidad Tobago (42”03). But its final time of 42”10 seconds was the new national record setting apart the previous best performance run in Zurich in 2014 (42”21).

That’s the reason why Gugole is right while stating that “I am really excited and just the idea to look at Dina Asher-Smith running in Gavardo makes my heart skip a beat. But her participation in our sports event is only the very first step of an extraordinary edition of our Meeting Città di Gavardo…”