Rio 2016: Step by step for British sprint star Dina Asher-Smith

Anniversary Games next stop for 200m runner who refuses to get too far ahead of herself

Dina Asher-Smith is a medal hope for Team GB (Reuters)

As the fastest woman in British history her feet are normally a blur. But Dina Asher-Smith is desperate to take the next few weeks one steady step at a time.

The excitement is building ahead of the Rio Olympic Games – just three weeks away now - but Asher-Smith is refusing to look too far ahead. It’s the way the 20-year-old, one of Team GB’s great hopes of the Games, has operated her whole - still fledgling - career and she is no mood to change now.

“I’m excited for the Olympics, obviously it’s going to be my first Games, which everyone tells you is one of the most mind-blowingly exciting experiences you are ever going to have,” Asher-Smith says. “But in terms of getting a medal and stuff I take things very much step by step.”

It may sound clichéd, but there is a logic in repeating the one-step-at-a-time mantra given the enormity of the Games for an athlete is such that it needs to be normalised. However, bubbly Asher-Smith gives the impression of being a down to earth Kent girl with a balanced outlook on life.

“First of all I’ve still got a race to do in London this weekend at the Anniversary Games,” she adds continuing her step-by-step route to Rio. “Then I’ve got to get on the plane safely, then I’ve got to make it through the heats, then get into the semi-finals. Then I’ve got to get into the final. Making an Olympic final is such a big feat in itself. I’ve got so many more things to think about than the prospect of getting a medal.”

Dina Asher-Smith is in fine form (AP)

It is hard to believe Asher-Smith, in her quieter, less chatty moments, has not let her mind wander towards that 200m podium in Rio. Although the opposition will be fierce only Dafne Schippers of Holland and Elaine Thompson of Jamaica are ranked above her. The British record holder is also the European champion having won gold in Amsterdam with a season’s best of 22.37 seconds earlier this month.

She was also visibly teary when she qualified for Rio at the British Championships. “Obviously it was one of those ‘childhood-dream’ moments when I crossed the line in trials and I allowed myself to get a bit emotional because it was something that I had worked really hard for,” she says.

But Brazil is Brazil she insists. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Nothing really changes,” she says. “When you strip it back it is just another race. There will be three more 200ms, exactly what I did in Beijing (last summer when she finished fifth in the World Championships 200m final), exactly what I’ve done at European Juniors, European Youths…OK, it’s on a bigger stage and more people are watching but essentially I’ve just got to do the same thing.

“In terms of preparation I’ve been training really hard, getting ready for it mentally with my coach. But I haven’t really done anything out of the ordinary because when you think about it, it’s another race and as soon as you start to blow it up into something that needs extra care and attention, that’s when the pressure starts to mount.

“Most of my team-mates are on their second, third or some of them on their fourth Games so they all tell you exactly what it’s going to be like, how it’s really exciting, blah blah blah. But at the same time they tell you to normalise it which is what I do with everything.

“One minute I can be very chatty, talking about absolute rubbish, then the next I have forgotten what I was talking about because I’m thinking about what I have got to do on the track. It’s not tough for me to tune in and out.”

If this is a trick of the mind Asher-Smith, who was a kit carrier at the London Olympics, has employed in her career so far, it’s worked. Her list of achievements is mighty impressive: She is the 2014 100m World Junior Champion, won bronze medal at the 2013 Moscow World Championships with the British 4x100m relay team. In 2015, she set a British record 100m time of 11.02 seconds and later that year became the first British woman to run 100m in under 11 seconds when she ducked in at 10.99 at the London Anniversary Games.

Dina Asher-Smith reacts to setting a new British record in the 100m last year (Getty)

She is back at the scene of that success this weekend. “I’m really excited about it,” she says, “because I’ve got such good memories. Running sub-11 last year and before that it was my first time in the relay team so I’ll always be grateful. It’s a good field too. You always look to race the fastest girls that you can so I’m really excited to get out there.”

Following her victory in the Europeans, Asher-Smtih said she had things to work on. She wasn’t happy with how she tailed off. “The end of my race I have to maintain my form,” she explains. “I need to keep getting stronger and maintain my speed through the line which unfortunately is not something nice to work on such as starts or just pure speed which requires nice short work. Instead, I’ve had to do a few lactic sessions which haven’t been lovely!

“It’s just hard! Really hard! But I tell myself I have to do more reps if I want to run faster and then just get on with it.”

So when she was lugging kit around at London 2012, did she know this day would come? “Not really,” she says. “We all have dreams. My dream was always to be an Olympian but I wasn’t in a place where Rio might have been a reality.”

It is now. But one step at a time.

Tickets for the Müller Anniversary Games are available from £20. More finish line tickets have now been released. Visit www.britishathletics.org.uk