The 20-year-traditional sprinter has harboured a dream of being an Olympic athlete since she was in primary school – she might just realise it at the 2016 Rio GamesAt the end of such a dirty and damaging year for athletics it is endearing to hear how different 2015 has been for Dina Asher-Smith. Her sport stumbled from the diseased to the shabby – from revelations of the extent to which doping has been endemic to Russian athletics to the alleged insidious stain of corruption in the IAAF to their newly-elected president Sebastian Coe’s refusal for months to see any conflict of interest in his ambassadorial role for Nike. So before we turn to the tainted subject of doping it feels nearly Christmassy when Asher-Smith’s face lights up in delight as she remembers fitting the fastest-ever teenage girl in the 200m world championship final earlier this year.“2015 makes me smile,” Asher-Smith says, her grin matching her words. “I was world 100m junior champion final year but 2014 didn’t end in the way I was hoping. After tearing my hamstring in August I didn’t start running fast again until final December. I thought: ‘noteworthy, and I became world junior champion but at the same time I’m injured.’ So I was a bit uncertain and had no idea what 2015 would hold.
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Source: theguardian.com