European Championships 2018: Dina Asher-Smith wins 200m gold medal - 'I have obliterated my expectations'

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Dina Asher-Smith cemented her place as the world’s fastest woman by completing the sprint double at the European Championships.

Already she had clocked the world’s fastest time this year in the 100metres and on Saturday night she repeated the feat over 200m, smashing her own British record and becoming the first Briton to ever achieve that continental sprint double.

In a stadium rich in athletics history, the Londoner faces the prospect of more history making as the undeniable athlete of these entire championships goes for triple gold on Sunday with the 4x100m record still to come.

It is a feat no Briton has ever achieved at any major championships. No female athlete, for that matter, has run under 22seconds this season and neither had the 22-year-old previously.

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But her time of 21.89s was nearly two tenths quicker than her previous best, all the more impressive as this is the first time she has doubled up in the sprints at a major championships.

The athlete and her coach John Blackie, who has trained her from the age of nine, had billed Berlin initially as no more than a dress rehearsal for next year’s World Championships and the 2020 Olympics. On the evidence of the past few days, she will surely double up at both.

“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I was so tired from the 100m and to run a PB like that, it’s been such a great championships. I have obliterated my expectations.”

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As for her relay ambitions, she said: “You never know. You don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re just going to try our best.”

Once again, in front of 60,000 spectators at the Olympiastadion, telling herself internally “you’re a double world champion”, she flew out of the blocks – a facet of her training which she has worked so tirelessly on with Blackie – and had a comfortable lead coming off the bend.

In the home straight, Dafne Schippers, an athlete prior to Berlin that she had never beaten at a major championships, threatened to close the gap but Asher-Smith still had enough left in reserve for a relatively comfortable victory quarter of a second clear.

The Briton said of Schippers: “I had the fear of God inside me. I knew I had to go like a bat out of hell because she is coming for me and there was no way she was going to let me win this.”

Jamile Samuel took the bronze and the British duo of Bianca Williams and Beth Dobbin were sixth and seventh respectively.

The result was all the more remarkable as the 200m, traditionally Asher-Smith’s stronger event, has played second fiddle this season with her focus more on the 100m in competition terms to bump the Briton down to fourth.

There was silver for Britain’s men in the 4x400m relay as Spain’s Bruno Hortalano ran out of steam horribly in the home straight, meaning Martyn Rooney anchored home the quartet including Rabah Yousif, Dwayne Cowan and Matt Hudson-Smith.

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The women’s event was denied some of the top 400m runners following some bizarre scheduling in which the 400m individual final was held just a few minutes earlier.

But Britain, missing Laviai Nielsen, who was fourth in that final, the quartet of Zoey Clark, Anyika Onuora, Amy Allcock and Eilidh Doyle took home the bronze.

There was disaster and despair for Britain’s women long jumpers in the final.

Lorraine Ugen had been ranked No1 in the world going into the event and, with defending champion Ivana Spanovic pulling out with injury on the day of the final, it paved the way for her to aspire for gold.

But she failed to make the top eight with her opening three jumpes and, as a result, played no further part in the competition.

There was agony too for Jazmin Sawyers, who had been in the bronze medal position with a 6.66m best only for Maryna Bekh to better her by a centimetre. Sawyers fractionally bettered it with her final jump only for Bekh to do the same, leaving Sawyers in fourth place.

Bekh’s effort denied another Briton, Shara Proctor, the silver, the Anguillan-born athlete having to make do with bronze. Much to the delight of a very vocal home crowd, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo won gold.

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