Dina Asher-Smith pulled up injured in the 100m final
(Picture: Getty Images)Dina Asher-Smith says she will look into her hydration strategy, as the sprinter’s baffling fitness curse struck again at the European Championships on Tuesday night.
Asher-Smith trailed home last in the women’s 100m final in Munich, where team-mate Daryll Neita took bronze, complaining of cramp in both calves.
“It’s very annoying,” she said. “I had cramp in my calves. I can’t be running on two cramping calves.
“It’s crazy. I’m going to go back, have a chat about my recovery, have a chat about how I’m hydrating and stuff.”
Defending champion Asher-Smith was returning to the track after missing the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with a hamstring injury suffered while running the 4x100m relay at the World Championships in Oregon last month.
Asher-Smith also saw last season wrecked by injury as she failed to make the final of the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics and then pulled out of the 200m, before returning in time to help Team GB to relay bronze.
The 26-year-old was slow to find form this season after that setback but vowed to peak for the summer’s trio of major championships and looked to have done just that, equalling her British 100m record when finishing fourth at the Worlds and then winning bronze over 200m before tweaking her hamstring.
Provided her latest issue proves nothing more serious than cramp, Asher-Smith will be back to defend her European title over the longer sprint later this week, with the final of that event scheduled for Friday night.
“I feel good, I’m in good shape, which is why I’m frustrated,” she added. “There’s no tear, no damage. But I got cramp in both my calves and I wasn’t about to go and run a whole race and probably tear them.”
With Asher-Smith out of contention, local favourite Gina Lueckenkemper won a thrilling gold for Germany ahead of Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji in a photo finish, with both athletes running 10.99seconds.
Neita, who had qualified fastest for the final after running 10.95 in her semi, took a fine bronze only a hundredth-of-a-second back but, remarkably, she too complained of cramp.
“I was cramping up a lot,” she said. “I haven’t cramped all year. I was saying a prayer on the start line that I got through in one piece.
“I honestly wasn’t going to race but who is going to believe me if I said I was cramping up before? I got a medal somehow.”
Unlike Asher-Smith, Neita did compete at the Commonwealths, where she also won bronze in the 100m, as well as relay silver, and there is concern that a hectic summer may be catching up with Britain’s athletes.
The knock-on effect of last year’s delayed Olympic Games meant the World Championships, originally scheduled for 2021, were pushed back 12 months into a summer that already contained the Commonwealths and Europeans.
A number of British stars have been targeting medals at all three events and Matthew Hudson-Smith will hope to become the first to meet that goal in Wednesday night’s 400m final.
The 27-year-old is the firm favourite for gold after running 44.35 to break the British record and win world bronze in Eugene last month. No one else in the field has broken 45 seconds this year.
Hudson-Smith is joined in the final by team-mate Alex Haydock-Wilson, who also has strong medal claims.
In the women’s equivalent, Victoria Ohuruogu, younger sister of former world and Olympic champion Christine, will hope to sneak into the frame but faces a tall order against a strong field headed by Dutch star Femke Bol, targeting the first of what could be three gold medals at the Championships.
