Dina Asher-Smith relishing fight as she prepares for Olympics

Dina Asher-Smith is relishing the fight for gold after her rivals sent out Olympic warnings.

The world 200m champion started her final countdown to the Games by winning the 100m British title and booking her spot for Tokyo on Saturday.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – the double 100m Olympic champion – ran 10.71 seconds to claim the Jamaican title on Friday. She set a world lead of 10.63 seconds earlier this month.

Gabrielle Thomas also became the fastest woman since Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988 over 200m when she won the US Olympic trials in 21.61 seconds but Asher-Smith holds no fear.

She said: “I always back myself because I know what kind of shape I’m in. It’s going to be really exciting in a few weeks’ time.

“I know what’s happened. The women have been running incredibly quickly this year and it’s amazing for world sprinting.

“I definitely have faster in me. That race was not perfect. I’m going to get a dissection from my coach as well. I’m in good shape, I’m in actually really, really good shape so I’m really excited.”

Though, despite the fast times in the States and Jamaica, the 25-year-old insisted she did not feel the need to make a statement in Manchester.

“Not particularly. I don’t really tend to think like that because, at the end of the day, sometimes I run into championships ranked way down,” she said.

“Even when I broke my foot, I just about qualified (for the 2017 World Championships) and then I managed to come fourth. I’m a championship performer.

“So all I want to do is use the race to practice each thing. I was practising running through the line and making sure that I continued as if I was running to 110 metres and that’s been the whole championship setup for me.”

Asher-Smith was denied a British record in the 100m final when a faulty timer initially clocked her at 10.71 seconds, before recording her official time of 10.97 seconds.

She is due to run in the Diamond League meet in Gateshead on July 13 before going to Tokyo and had her second vaccination against Covid-19 on Monday.

She added: “I had an option to get it on Tuesday (last week) but I didn’t know what the side effects were so I was like, ‘let me just make sure that I’m good’. I’ll be all good by the time I get on the plane.”