Asher-Smith and Lansiquot finish fifth in their heats to miss out on women’s 100m Olympics final
Dina Asher-Smith and Imani-Lara Lansiquot failed to reach the final of the women’s 100m after they both finished fifth in their semi-final heats.
Orpington’s Asher-Smith was up in the first heat and clocked 11.10 with USA’s Melissa Jefferson crossing the line first.
Peckham’s Lansiquot produced a 11.21 run in the second heat (11.21).
Asher-Smith was unable to shed any light on her underwhelming performance at the Stade de France.
The 28-year-old said: “I feel like I am in a great place, great shape…I am very very disappointed.
“It’s frustrating full stop. Whether it’s a mind blowing [winning] time or it’s not, I fully know that I am capable and fully know that I should have been able to produce. I am shocked and disappointed.
“I have been running great. I have been running great races. I have been running great in training. I was fully prepared to make that final, so I am very disappointed.”
Asher-Smith still has the 200m to compete in but took little solace about that in the immediate aftermath of her 100m exit.
“Nothing is a blessing,” she said. “The Olympics is once every four years so I am very disappointed.
“I love the 200m but I love both of them. Mentally I was very much in this one. I can’t say I was thinking about that [the 200m] because I was fully fixed on doing well in the 100m and then moving on to the 200m.”
BBC pundit Denise Lewis told the station: “Kind of not the form we expected from Dina but she didn’t look great in those heats, I have to say. I’d have liked to have seen a bit more of that zip that we usually see from Dina. It’s not the Dina we are used to seeing – she will be bitterly disappointed.
“I’ve sensed that whole demeanour is not the Dina that we are used to.”
Former American track star Michael Johnson was critical of Asher-Smith’s technique. He said: “Look at the start – that’s not typical. The arms are coming out to the side, I noticed that in the earlier round, and it just doesn’t look like what we’ve seen from her in the past.
“She is with a new coach, I don’t think he would have changed what she was doing before to that. I would not have expected a lot this year, at the beginning of the year. I would’ve expected her to come in thinking ‘this is going to be tough for me – the standard is really high and I’ve got to be at my absolute best’.
“As people started to fall away – all the Jamaicans started falling away – then it started to open up some space. But she still should have come into this thinking this is going to be tough. You have to remember that Dina hasn’t run a personal best since maybe 2019 – you have to be on that kind of trajectory to get that confidence coming into a championship and feel like I’m one of the people in the conversation.
“She should have made the final but I’m not totally shocked, to be honest.”
