Dina Asher-Smith wins 200m bronze behind Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at World Athletics Championships in Oregon
Published: 07:22, 22 July 2022
Updated: 07:31, 22 July 2022
Kent's Dina Asher-Smith returned to the podium at a major championships with third place in the women's 200m final at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.
The Blackheath & Bromley Harriers runner, defending the title she won in 2019 in Doha, clocked 22.02sec behind Jamaica's Shericka Jackson (21.45) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (21.81).
Asher-Smith, who missed out on a medal earlier this week in the 100m, and endured an injury-hit 2021 that saw her pull out of the 200m at the Olympics, dedicated her bronze medal to her grandmother, who died earlier this year.
Speaking to the BBC, Asher-Smith said: "This year has been exceptionally difficult because I felt that I've been in great shape but sadly my grandma died just before the first race this season.
"She'd been ill for quite a long time and she's really such a bedrock of my close family so for a long time athletics was way at the back of my mind.
"It's been a really tough mental challenge for me to get through the season so that's probably why some of my results are a bit interesting at the beginning.
"I was going from a place of I'm just so profoundly sad to trying to pick myself up to run. This [medal] is for my whole family, this is for my grandma because it's been such a tough few months for us."
Running in lane three, Asher-Smith's strong start meant a medal was always likely when she hit the bend but she couldn't keep pace with Jackson and Fraser-Pryce down the home straight, Jackson setting the second-fastest time in history behind Florence Griffith-Joyner's mark of 21.34 set at the Seoul Olympics in 1988.
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Richard Trevena