| Venue: Budapest Dates: 19-27 August |
| Protection: Watch stay on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC iPlayer, BBC Crimson Button, BBC Sport web site and app; pay attention on BBC Radio 5 Reside and BBC Sounds; stay textual content on night periods |
A historic second had seldom felt so routine.
Exploding from the blocks, Dina Asher-Smith ran the bend to perfection.
She stormed away from the competitors to win World Championship gold in dominant style.
With that triumph in Doha 4 years in the past, on the age of 23, Asher-Smith turned the primary British girl to win a serious world dash title.
It marked the emotional fruits of a journey from being topped world junior champion in 2014, changing the potential she had lengthy since exhibited to gold on one of many sport’s greatest levels.
“I can not relate to the woman that received in Doha as a result of I run in another way,” Asher-Smith tells BBC Sport.
“I am stronger, sooner, technically higher and I am extra assured.
“However when it comes to starvation, it is simply the identical. I’m who I’m.”
The 27-year-old is getting ready for her newest try at making a world podium on the World Championships in Budapest.
There she is going to bid so as to add to her eight world and Olympic medals within the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay – lower than one yr out from the 2024 Video games in Paris.
“I might like to win. That will be enjoyable,” says Asher-Smith on her ambitions for the Worlds, which start on Saturday, 19 August.
“I am a medals individual. They’ll by no means be taken away from you. I am hungry and I at all times wish to achieve success.
“I really feel just about the identical as I did earlier than I received [world gold], primarily as a result of I do not give it some thought.
“I simply at all times wish to push to be higher and do higher.”
At a memorable championships in 2019, Asher-Smith additionally claimed 100m silver, simply three days earlier than her 200m triumph, securing Britain’s first world dash medal of any color for 26 years.
Nonetheless, her expertise eventually yr’s delayed occasion in Eugene proved a contrasting one.
Emotionally exhausted following the lack of her grandmother, Asher-Smith recovered from a irritating fourth-place end within the 100m to take 200m bronze.
However she would pull up within the relay with a hamstring harm, denying her the possibility to compete at a house Commonwealth Video games.
Calf cramps – brought on by her interval – then ended her hopes within the 100m ultimate eventually August’s European Championships, the place she was dissatisfied with a 200m silver, on the finish of a difficult season.
“Getting in to Budapest, I simply genuinely consider I am in a extremely good place,” says Asher-Smith, who additionally noticed her bid for a primary particular person Olympic medal hindered by harm in Tokyo.
“I am in superb form bodily – every thing has been constant, and on this sport consistency is king. I am actually excited.
“I do not like saying that I’ve completed this a number of instances as a result of it makes me sound previous however I am skilled and I’ve come into competitions from quite a lot of locations.
“So long as you are there, you are wholesome, you’ve got completed as a lot coaching as you wished to do in the course of the season and also you consider you’ve got all of the instruments to achieve success, that is all you want.”
An encouraging 2023 has introduced regular enchancment following an undefeated indoor season by which Asher-Smith improved her British 60m document.
On the London Diamond League 100m in July, she beat reigning world 200m champion Shericka Jackson – the quickest girl on the planet this yr – clocking a season’s finest time of 10.85 seconds as she completed runner-up to Marie-Josee Ta Lou.
There was additional trigger for optimism over 200m, Asher-Smith’s favoured distance, by which she sharpened from 22.61 secs in Might to 22.23 secs in Monaco two months later.
However fierce competitors awaits the Briton within the wide-open girls’s dash occasions in Budapest, together with Jamaica’s five-time 100m world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, People Sha’Carri Richardson and Gabrielle Thomas, and Julien Alfred of St Lucia – along with Jackson and Ta Lou.
“The adrenaline rush, notably within the 100m, after they say ‘in your marks’ and you may hear a pin drop – even athletes who’ve retired say there should not many issues that offer you that feeling,” says Asher-Smith, a four-time European gold medallist.
“I at all times say when you consider you may win, you may, however when you do not consider you may, then you definitely undoubtedly will not.”