RTÉ Sport Journalist
Many years ago when rehearsing an introduction to our coverage of the European Cross Country Championships, I referred to Jerry Kiernan as a former Olympian.
Jerry quietly suggested to me that using the term former could imply one was no longer an Olympian. He was correct, once an Olympian, always an Olympian. I quickly made the required adjustment to the script.
Jerry had a great sense of humour even if the attempt at hilarity was at his expense. On one occasion when he shared punditry duty with Ailís McSweeney, who was then our national record holder in the women s 100m, he barely batted an eyelid when I introduced them as the fast and furious of Irish athletics.
Asher-Smith equals 60m PB at Karlsruhe indoor meet after 15-month absence
Issued on:
29/01/2021 - 21:52 1 min
Karlsruhe (Germany) (AFP)
Britain s 200m world champion Dina Asher-Smith equalled her personal best over 60m as she clocked 7.08 seconds in winning the women s final at Karlsruhe s indoor meet on Friday in her first race for well over a year.
Less than six months before the Tokyo Olympics get underway, Asher-Smith dominated the field.
She was the fastest semi-finalist, clocking 7.11 secs, in her first indoor race for three years and her first international race for 15 months.
In the build-up, Asher-Smith, 25, said she is planning a genuine attack on the indoor season and could run at the European Indoor Championships in Turon, Poland, from March 5-7.
Dina Asher-Smith equaled her 60m personal best of 7.08 seconds
Credit: GETTY IMAGES
Consider this as notice served by Dina Asher-Smith to the world’s leading sprinters. Three years after last competing indoors and 15 months since an international race of any sort, Asher-Smith delivered an emphatic warning of what might come in this Olympic year when narrowly missing the British 60 metres record in her comeback race on Friday night. Rustiness? What rustiness?
With victory at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meet in Karlsruhe expected, it was to the clock that eyes turned for an idea of what kind of shape Asher-Smith is in after an extended pandemic-enforced training stint that wrote off the entirety of 2020.
The head of UK Athletics has been the target of a bizarre attack from a social media account that belongs to a funded British athlete after announcing the cancellation of the national indoor