Orpington’s Asher-Smith agonisingly misses out on Paris 2024 200m medal

Orpington’s Dina Asher-Smith agonisingly missed out on a medal in the 200m final by two-hundredths of a second.

USA’s Gabby Thomas stormed to gold on Tuesday evening as she dominated the final to win in 21.83 seconds.

Asher-Smith and fellow Team GB runner Daryll Neita were hoping to become the first British woman to make an Olympic sprint podium for 64 years.

But Asher-Smith, 28, finished fourth in 22.22, behind Saint Lucian runner-up Julien Alfred (22.08) and American bronze medallist Brittany Brown (22.20).

The wait for Asher-Smith’s first Olympic medal goes on.

“I feel good,” she said. 

“It has been a long week and I am proud of that performance. It was a really strong field. All the girls across them have so many strengths, you have got so many strong bend runners, so many great finishers. 

“I was really proud to have held my own. I am really happy for the medallists, especially for Julien [Alfred]. She is my training partner, she is such a cutie and it has been a joy to see her do so well. 

“I was just told ‘just get out and keep going, if you die you die, just get out and keep going’. I enjoyed doing that because normally you run far more strategically. It’s not often I get that instruction, last time I had that was the final at Eugene [2022 Worlds]. I had some fun with that.

“Women’s sprinting is really incredible right now. If you go back to 2012, back then, these kind of times would hold up phenomenally well in that era. It’s a great time to be a female sprinter.”