For British track and field fans there are few sights more thrilling than Dina Asher-Smith going supersonic. It is not just her speed that rips the breath away, it is the economy of movement and sense of imperious power as she glides clear of a world-class field.
No wonder a near sell-out crowd in Birmingham roared as Asher-Smith powered to a British 60m record of 7.03sec in her heat of the World Indoor Tour finals, before leaving world and European champions gasping behind her in winning the final in 7.05.
“I am really happy,” she said, before confessing to having mixed emotions. “But I was actually coming here for a 6.9.”
Yet on an afternoon when Keely Hodgkinson and Neil Gourley also broke national indoor records in the women’s 800m and men’s 1500m, there was a sense of something else, too – that Asher-Smith had vanquished the ghosts of 2022.
Last season she had planned to take on the world, the Commonwealth and Europe in three championships in a whirlwind six weeks. But then life, off the track and on, got in the way.
First she lost her beloved grandmother Sislyn weeks before the world championships. Then she suffered a hamstring injury in the 4x100m relay in Eugene that forced her to miss the Commonwealth Games. To make matters worse, she pulled up with crippling period cramps in the 100m final at the European championships in Munich.
“Normally we do well to separate track life and our personal life,” she said. “But sometimes things are so big, you can’t help your response. It was a really challenging year for me, but – and I know this sounds crazy – it was not really physical. It was more as a human being. We’re all humans, we all have the ups and downs of adult life.”
In the end, it spoke volumes about Asher-Smith’s talent and resolve that she still came away from 2022 with a world 200m bronze and a European silver, even though she had wanted more.
However here she laid down a notable marker for this year’s outdoor season. Not only did she beat the world 200m champion, Shericka Jackson, the European 100m champion, Gina Lückenkemper, and her biggest domestic rival, Daryll Neita, who was second in 7.13, she also knows there is a lot more to come.
It was a day of mixed emotions for Hodgkinson, whose stunning career trajectory continued with a British indoor 800m record of 1min 57.20sec. It amounted to a healthy payday for the Olympic and world silver medallist, given she picked up a $5,000 cheque for the record and another $10,000 for winning the Indoor Tour. But the 20-year-old was disappointed to miss out on Jolanda Ceplak’s world record by 1.36 seconds.
“I’ve had time to calm down,” said Hodgkinson. “It’s a British record so I can’t complain but you know when you are capable of so much more. I’m a bit gutted. I felt I was on pace, but the last 50m it got away from me.”
Another British record was set in the men’s 1500m as Gourley finished in 3min 32.48sec. The 28-year-old Scot powered home in the last 200m to overtake the previous holder, Josh Kerr, who faded to fifth.
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It was a performance so impressive that it put him eighth on the all-time list – only the Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has gone quicker this year – and bodes well for his chances of a first major medal at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul next week. “This track is quick, the surface is quick. And the race today has set me up nicely for next week,” he said.
There was no joy for Laura Muir as she fell well outside her planned bid for the world indoor 1000m record. The 29-year-old had exuded a quiet confidence that she had a chance of finally beating Maria Mutola’s 24-year record. But she was already drifting off the pace at halfway and came home in 2min 34.53sec, more than three seconds down.
“I feel like I’m in the shape to run that sort of time,” said Muir. “But it’s about getting it perfect. And it’s so hard to get right.”
Elsewhere the US star Grant Holloway recorded his 68th victory in a row in the men’s 60m hurdles – a record that goes back to 2014 – with a lightning-quick 7.35sec.
But the day belonged to Asher-Smith. On this evidence, the year yet could do too.
