by How Dina Asher-Smith wishes this season hadn’t crossed the finish line yet. The Briton showed her class again on a wet and grizzly evening in Brussels, taking on Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred in the Diamond League final – and leaving world champion Sha’Carri Richardson , lagging behind. wake.
On a night where another Briton, Charlie Dobson, won the men’s 400m 80-1 and Jakob Ingebrigtsen took revenge on Cole Hocker in the men’s 1,500m, Asher-Smith proved once again that she remained one of the best sprinters in the world. What made the 28-year-old’s performance so impressive was that she didn’t get off to her usual flying start. Yet she clung to Alfred like a limpet and pushed the St Lucian to dig deep for her victory in 10.88 seconds, with Asher-Smith taking second in 10.92.
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Far behind was Richardson, who slowed down and finished eighth, as Asher-Smith put a disappointing Paris Olympics behind her – in which she failed to reach the 100m final and finished fourth in the 200m.
Then, Julien said she was inspired by negative comments after her loss to Richardson in Zurich last week. “I wanted to prove to myself that I deserved to be here,” she said. “Because after Zurich I watched the race on YouTube to analyze it – and I read comments that said I was a one-off thing.”
“These performances give me a lot of courage for next year,” added Asher-Smith. “I’m used to the European climate, but it was still cold today.”
There are 82 Olympic medalists in Brussels for the two days of the Diamond League final, which marks the culmination of the outdoor season. However, tired bodies, combined with unseasonably cold temperatures of 12°C and humid weather, were never going to deliver super-fast times.
The conditions certainly appear to be affecting Britain’s Matt Hudson-Smith, who was favorite for the 400m until he crashed on the back straight with what appeared to be a cramp.
That appeared to set up the race for London 2012 gold medalist Kirani James and American Vernon Norwood. But over the last 50 meters, the Briton Dobson came home to win in 44.49 ahead of James.
Dobson, who won a silver medal at the European Championships but failed to qualify for the Olympic final in Paris, was understandably delighted. “I could never have imagined winning tonight,” he said. “I’m so happy. I just tried to run my own race and have fun.
Another Briton, Georgia Bell, also put in a hugely impressive performance to take a sparkling second place in the 800m behind 2023 world champion Mary Moraa.
Bell’s favorite event is the 1,500m, in which she won bronze at the Olympics. However, she had enough strength in her legs to lead the race at Moraa – passing her with just under 200m to go before the Kenyan fought back to win in a season’s best time of 1min 56.56sec, almost a second ahead of Bell.
In the men’s 1,500, Ingebrigtsen beat Hocker, who beat him in the Olympic final, and fellow American Yared Nuguse, who beat him last week in Zurich to win in 3:30.37.
The women’s 400m was won easily by Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino in 49.45, a time which was almost a second ahead of that of American Alexis Holmes. However, it also left the 35,000 people in the King Baudouin Stadium wondering what could have happened.
Because 11 minutes earlier, during an exhibition race, the American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran in 49.11 to go even faster. It would have been a race between the two. However, McLaughlin-Levrone was not allowed to participate in the official event having not participated in the Diamond League all season.
“I felt cramps,” said McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her own world record in the 400m hurdles en route to gold in Paris. “That’s why I chose to run with long paints, just to be safe. But I felt strong during the race.
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There was no pole vault world record for Mondo Duplantis, who decided to stop after a winning jump of 6.11m because his legs hurt. “I had some good jumps tonight and I’m really happy with this performance,” said the Swede.
“Now is the time to celebrate my great season. I’ll drink some good Belgian beers tonight, that’s for sure.
