Dina Asher-Smith last night paid an emotional tribute to her late grandma - dedicating a brilliant Bronze to her “partner in mischief”.
A year after injury ruined her Olympics and left her devastated in Tokyo, Britain’s fastest woman returned to the championship stage to claim the medal her heart was set on.
“Truly, this is for my whole family, but I dedicate the medal to my grandma,” she said. “It has been such a tough few months for us.”
Asher-Smith hailed it as a “race for the ages” and nobody at Hayward Field was about to disagree, not after watching the highest quality women’s 200 metres field of all time.
Shericka Jackson clocked the second fastest time in history (21.45secs) to finish well ahead of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (21.81) and take the title Dina won in Doha.
But the only loss weighing heavily on Asher-Smith was that of her mum’s mum, who passed away in May and was laid to rest last month.
Sislyn Asher, she explained, had come over from Trinidad post-war as part as the Windrush generation. She worked as a nurse for the NHS in London’s Lewisham Hospital and lived to the age of 92.
Describing her as the “bedrock” of their family, Dina admitted her loss had “knocked her for six”.
“She was my partner in mischief, I used to spend every day at her house when I was younger,” she said. “She was very cheeky, very bubbly, just like me.
“We looked very similar, same mannerisms, birthdays two days apart. We aways had a joint birthday. My life is never going to be the same and nor am I. We were so close.”
In the circumstances Asher-Smith achieved wonders to focus and deliver a performance too good for, amongst others, Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah.
“I knew I had to run like my life depended on it if I wanted a chance,” she said. “I wanted to retain my title but when someone runs 21.4, you know what, congratulations.”
Her time of 22.02 was slower than that which won her the title in Doha but that is unsurprising, given the emotional burden she was carrying.
“I had to take myself from being so profoundly sad to being okay to race,” she said. “But in this type of calibre being okay to race isn’t good enough. You need to be excellent.
“I am in great shape but your mind has to be there too and if I am being honest my brain has been everywhere. If I’d let the emotions take over I’d have probably just cried.
“I’m very grateful to my sports psychologist for an amazing job in getting my brain and body on the same page.”
Asher-Smith got out fast and coming off the bend was 0.04 down on Jackson. But that was the last she saw of her - the Jamaican covering the second 100m in a staggering 10.41secs.
But for Florence Griffiths Joyner it would have been a world record. Thirty-four years on a new mark might not be too far away.
