DINA ASHER-SMITH, Britain’s fastest woman in history, has a simple message for the the young girls who idolise her: Aim to be quicker than me.
As we approach the third decade of this century, the Londoner, 24, has the chance to cement herself as a household name.
Already she is recognised more frequently on the London Underground following the world 200m title triumph at the Doha World Athletics Championships
Glory at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would secure her place among Britain’s sporting icons.
And whenever she is approached for advice by young fans trying to get into athletics, she gives them a straightforward challenge.
In an exclusive chat with SunSport, Asher-Smith said: It’s funny when girls come up to me now and say they want to be like me.
“I always tell them: ‘Be better than me. Don’t want to be me. It’s all about being better. ‘
“There’s no point saying to somebody it’d be good if you emulated me. There’s no point.
“They’ve to aim to be better, be stronger, be faster. See if I’ve made any mistakes and don’t do them. Things always move forward in sport.”
It is this no-nonsense attitude that explains the drive and determination which has propelled her to the top of the 100m and 200m rankings ever since her kit-carrying appearance at the London 2012 Olympics.
Her times of 10.83 seconds and 21.88 seconds remain unprecedented within the British sprinting annuals.
Both times were secured in the finals of the world championships in Qatar where she won 200m gold, 100m silver and then 4x100m relay silver.
As any athlete aspires to, she peaked at the right moments of the season, silencing talk that several top runners were missing the 200m showpiece.
Asher-Smith said: “It’s been a really successful year.
“A year of growth, consistency and increasing my profile as a woman and an athlete. I’ve taken it up a level really.
“Being a world champion sounds crazy. My friend Raevyn Rogers, a chatty 800m runner from Texas, asked how it felt after I got my medal.
“I said: ‘It feels and sounds great but ultimately I still want to go on to achieve bigger things. I hope this is the beginning and part of a cool journey.
“Weirdly enough I was never somebody who dreamt of the limelight.
“I just liked running and getting faster and I always wanted to be better than the race before.
“Hopefully I can run faster. Faster times, executing plans, being stronger, more confident, and improving is what excites me. Rather than the titles themselves.”
Since Doha, there has been a well-earned holiday with school friends to Mauritius.
The kitchen she had hoped to paint the purple colours of a Doha hotel café remained undecorated because she went back to training.
It has been a month of awards show, fancy dresses and tributes.
This Sunday she will be in Aberdeen for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards, aiming to be the 19th athletics winner of the main accolade. She is second in the betting behind World Cup-winning cricketer Ben Stokes.
Post-Sunday, her biggest worry is she might have to skip the turkey on Christmas Day and spend it on the blocks in the cold. Her demanding coach John Blackie has yet to make a definitive decision.
She groaned: “It usually depends on what day Christmas Day falls on. We try to keep that week as normal a training week as possible.
“I train six days a week so we try to have the seventh day on Christmas day if it works. If it messes up the rest of the training programme, then you have to roll through it. It depends on John and whether the track is open.”
Asher-Smith’s 2020 season is likely to start in May or June. She is committed to running the Anniversary Games at the London Stadium between July 4-5.
Like in Doha, she plans to observe a self-imposed social media ban in Japan.
If she achieves her shot at immortality, then her phone will be red-hot next summer.
She said: “It works for me. It’s nothing too personal. It’s the fact you need to concentrate.
“If you take yourself back 10 years when Instagram or Twitter didn’t exist, people were focused on the job in hand.
“And they weren’t tuning into people’s opinions on social media.
“It’s a brilliant tool to interact with everyone but sometimes you need to have the words of just your coach in your head.
“Hopefully the Olympics will be so much fun for GB as a nation.
“You have so many talented people, like an Adam Peaty, who will do well for Britain in Tokyo.”
The sprint queen claims turmoil at the top of British Athletics will NOT affect her Tokyo Olympics glory shot.
Track and field in this country is in crisis given the British governing body has no full-time performance director or CEO after axing Neil Black and Zara Hyde Peters.
Despite Asher-Smith’s heroics in the 200 metres final in October, the GB team missed their medal target at the Doha World Athletics Championships.
Yet Asher-Smith is confident she can fully focus on becoming just the tenth British female Olympic champion in athletics, when the Games begin in July 2020.
She told SunSport: “It won’t really affect us or our lives as athletes.
“We need to train hard, work hard, eat well, sleep well and that’s all independent of administration.
“Athletes exist independent of corporations, independent of businesses and companies.
“Ultimately we want to run fast. Whoever is there administration-wise it doesn’t really affect us.
“My coach John Blackie is not a British Athletics coach. And he is not affiliated to them at all. So it doesn’t affect me.
BBC Sports Personality of the Year will be on BBC One from 7pm on Sunday. Voting will open on the night. For full T&Cs please visit the BBC Sport website
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