Dina Asher-Smith must be wishing she had never crossed the finish line this season, but on a damp, dreary night in Brussels the Briton proved herself again by going toe-to-toe with Olympic 100m gold medallist Juliane Alfred in the Diamond League final and leaving world champion Shakari Richardson on the back foot.
On a night when another Briton, Charlie Dobson, won a shock 80-1 victory in the 400m and Jakob Ingebrigtsen got his revenge on Cole Hocker in the 1500m, Asher-Smith again proved she is still one of the world's best sprinters. What was impressive about the 28-year-old's performance was that she didn't get off to her usual blistering start, but she hung on to Alfred and inspired the St Lucia native to win in 10.88s, with Asher-Smith second in 10.92s.
Richardson was far back in the race, off the pace, to finish in eighth place, but Asher-Smith was able to forget her disappointing performance at the Paris Olympics, where she failed to reach the 100m final and also finished fourth in the 200m.
Julianne then said she was motivated by the negative comments she received after her loss to Richardson in Zurich last week. “I wanted to prove to myself that I deserved to be here,” she said. “After Zurich, I watched and analysed the race on YouTube and read some comments that said my performance was a one-off.”
“These performances give us great encouragement for next year,” added Asher-Smith. “We're used to European weather but it was still cold today.”
The climax of the outdoor season will see 82 Olympic medallists gather in Brussels for two days for the Diamond League Finals, but tired bodies, unseasonably cold 12°C and rainy weather will mean no lightning-fast times.
The weather certainly seemed to affect Britain's Matt Hudson-Smith, who was the favorite to win the 400m but retired in the back straight with what appeared to be cramps.
That looked like it would give 2012 Olympic gold medallist Kirani James and American Vernon Norwood the advantage, but in the final 50 metres, Britain's Dobson surged to finish ahead of James to win in 44.49 seconds.
Dobson, who won silver at the European Championships but failed to advance to the Olympic final in Paris, was understandably ecstatic. “I never expected to win tonight,” Dobson said. “I'm very happy. I just tried to run my race and have fun.”
Another Briton, Georgia Bell, also put in a highly impressive performance, taking a respectable second place in the 800m behind 2023 World Champion Mary Morra.
Bell's specialty is the 1500m, where she won an Olympic bronze medal, but she had enough legs to win the race to Molaa, where she overtook Bell with under 200m to go, but the Kenyan fought back to win in a season's best time of 1min 56.56sec, nearly a second ahead of Bell.
In the men's 1,500 metres, Ingebrigtsen beat Hocker, who beat him in the Olympic final, and his compatriot Yared Nugse, who overtook him in Zurich last week to win in 3 minutes 30.37 seconds.
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Olympic gold medalist Marileidy Paulino easily won the women's 400 meters in 49.45 seconds, nearly a second ahead of American Alexis Holmes, but the result left the 35,000 fans at King Baudouin Stadium in doubt.
That's because 11 minutes earlier, in an exhibition race, American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had bettered her time with a time of 49.11 seconds. It would have been a fantastic battle between the two, but McLaughlin-Levrone had not competed in the Diamond League this season and was therefore not allowed to compete in the official event.
“I felt the cramps,” said McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her own world record in the 400m hurdles on her way to winning gold in Paris, “so I chose to run in the long paint to be safe. But I felt strong during the race.”
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Mondo Duplantis decided to withdraw after his winning jump of 6.11 metres due to pain in his leg, but without a world pole vault record. “I had some good jumps tonight and I'm really happy with my performance,” the Swede said.
“Now is the time to celebrate my beautiful season. Tonight I'm going to have some delicious Belgian beer.”
