Amid a flurry of fond reminiscence and surrounded by a plethora of yoghurt products, the stars of track and field have arrived in London for the Müller Anniversary Games.
A two-day Diamond League event, the Anniversary Games were part of the legacy offering that followed the 2012 Olympics in London. For many of the athletes competing this year, however, the relevant anniversary is that of two years ago when the London Stadium hosted the World Athletics Championships. With the next worlds approaching in Doha in September, and the Olympics only a year away, the Anniversary Games are shaping up to be an intriguing staging post, with strong lineups in several of the 30 scheduled disciplines.
One of the stars turning out in Stratford will be Dina Asher-Smith. Last year, the 23-year-old raised standards and expectations by bringing home three sprinting gold medals from the European Championships. This year’s challenge is a different one again.
“I think it’s been quite easy for me [to deal with expectation] because I’m always realistic with myself,” she said in the buildup to the weekend’s competition. “Since last year I’ve been saying: ‘It’s the Europeans guys!’ Of course it’s really good and I was happy with how I was performing but the Europeans and the worlds and Olympics are completely different competitions.
“I feel people’s expectations, but I don’t think I take it in a bad way. Some people get really overwhelmed but for me it’s nice to think that people believe I can go on to do great things. I’ve actually taken some of their energy and put it into myself as well. For years and years you haven’t seen this hype in some athletes and disciplines in the UK. For people to be getting excited about women’s sprints is I think really nice.”
Racing in the UK for the first time this year, Asher-Smith is due to compete in the women’s 100m and Sunday’s 4x100m relay. This means she will not be competing in the 200m, the event in which she made her name, a strategic decision that shows the importance for athletes of maintaining and balancing their form at this crucial point in the competitive cycle.
The women’s 100m features a strong field including the world and double Olympic champion, the Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, whose 10.73sec last month is the joint-fastest time in the world this year. The Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahouré, a former double world silver medallist, and Marie-Josée Ta Lou, who has run 10.93 this year, are also in competition and Asher-Smith – whose best this season is 10.91 – is excited by the challenge, even if the result is of secondary importance.
“Doing well against Olympic champions and world champions will always be fantastic, but I never have the mentality of having to prove myself,” she said. “I just don’t go to places like that. I know that when the world championships arrive I will hopefully be in the right place. Everybody is at different stages with their preparation, it is a long season. Some people have been in fantastic shape since May, some have been peaking for this trial and then going back into training.
“Doubling up [for Doha] has always been the plan. A lot of the training has been making sure I can do that. Because while I doubled up last year, that was with missing a heat in both the 100 and the 200. That was great for performances but again you’ve got to translate that on to a world level. It’s all these little things that you have to work harder and push on to bigger things for the world stage.”
Among the other big names competing at the London Stadium are Yohan Blake and Andre De Grasse in the men’s 100m. They will be joined by Britain’s James Ellington, making his first competitive appearance since a serious motorbike accident in 2017. Also racing are the outstanding men’s 110m hurdles champion Omar McLeod, the new women’s mile world record holder Sifan Hassan, competing in the 5,000m, and Karsten Warholm, the world champion in the men’s 400m hurdles. Warholm was typical of the athletes who spoke before the event in sharing a real enthusiasm for the London Stadium. The running track is frequently a bone of contention for other sports using the venue, its broad dimensions even the subject of complaints during two baseball fixtures last month. But for track and field athletes it is a distinct attraction.
“The track is very good, and the warm-up facilities are world-class,” said Warholm, who also admitted to having recently constructed a simulacrum of a London bus in Lego. “This is where it all started and all the memories I have are very good. I very much like it in London, that’s why I keep coming back.”