Yahoo Finance Dina Asher-Smith reveals injury after failing to make the 100m final and pulls out of 200m
Dina Asher-Smith has pulled out of the 200metres after failing to recover from a hamstring injury, which saw her miss out on qualifying for the 100m final.
The world champion for the longer sprint distance, seen as one of Britain’s best medal hopes on the track, revealed she had torn her hamstring at the Olympic trials at the end of June.
So severe was the first diagnosis, she was in tears for two to three days and prepared a written statement announcing her withdrawal from the British team for Tokyo.
But in a final throw of the dice, she had travelled to Germany where she received treatment over two weeks from Dr Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wolfhart, who had previously treated the likes of Usain Bolt, her thinking being it was worth the risk even if “just a two percent chance”.
She was on crutches initially following the grade two tear and missed nearly three weeks of training. Her first time in spikes was just 10 days ago and her first full training session just a week before the heats of the 100m.
“It’s been a crazy, intense and heart-breaking period,” said the emotional 25-year-old. “I was in the shape of my life. Without a doubt. I’m not trying to sound arrogant but that is where I was. I felt I was going to win this.
“In the trials I pulled my hamstring, I tore it pretty bad I was told it would take surgery and would take three to four months to get back. I went and got a second opinion and it wasn’t a rupture. I went from ‘oh I can’t go’ to ‘maybe I can’.
“But I’ve been dreaming about this for so long that it just was never an option [to pull out], unless I couldn’t stand or do anything on the leg, it wasn’t an option for me to pull out, because this is my life.”
Despite her withdrawal from the 200m, she said she was still committed to run for the team in the 4x100m relay at the end of next week.
Her time of 11.05s and third place in her semi-final of the 100m suggested something was not right as Elaine Thompson-Herah was well clear from start to finish to win 10.76s.
There was initally an anxious wait over whether she would make the final as one of two fastest losers but she was upstaged by Teahna Daniels and Daryll Neita. On the evidence of her semi-final run and the injury-affected build-up, her effectiveness in the final would have been limited.
She later explained her lack of training because of the injury had affected her latter part of the 100m, and she would not have had the speed over the longer distance to compete in the 200m. But she insisted she would line up for the relay.
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