ON THIS DAY...ASHER-SMITH'S STOCKHOLM WORLD LEAD

Exactly one year ago today on 30 May 2019, Dina Asher-Smith laid down a clear foundation towards the Doha World Championships as she put bitterly cold conditions to one side in Stockholm to clock another Diamond League victory in a world leading time.

Stockholm was just Asher-Smith’s second appearance of the year – not including a low-profile 4x400m relay for her Blackheath & Bromley club in Gillingham – having opened with a dominant victory in the 200m at the Doha Diamond League meeting at the start of the month.

Describing conditions at the track as cold would be an understatement – there were also high winds – but it didn’t bother the triple European champion from 2018 one bit as she took to the startline in the 200m again with the likes of Olympic champion Elaine Thompson and world champion Dafne Schippers for company.

Asher-Smith got off to a fine start and made up the stagger on those in the lanes outside her on the turn. By the home straight she was powering ahead and recorded a huge winning margin after clocking a world-leading 22.18.

How big was the winning margin? Thompson, the Olympic 100m and 200m champion from Rio 2016, came home in second some 0.48 adrift of the Briton while Schippers, winner of the last two world titles in the 200m, was third a further 0.12 behind the Jamaican.

It was her second quickest time since the 2015 World Championships in Beijing with only her run to gold at the European Championships in 2018 in Berlin bettering it. It was clear from that night that 2019 might be another truly special year for Asher-Smith

Asher-Smith said at the time: “My aim was to come, win and run my own race which is very important in a race of that calibre. I didn’t expect to run that kind of time as it is quite cold.”