Dina Asher-Smith won a gold medal in the 200 meters at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational, advancing her Olympic preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. After winning in 22.51 seconds over Jessika Gbai and Lanae-Tava Thomas, the British athlete declared herself “in really good shape.”
The athlete declared: “I’m in really good shape so I was hoping to get a quicker time… Clearly, I’ve got some stuff that I’ve got to work on so I’m going to go back to Austin [Texas] to work on them, but I’m happy to have won here in Jamaica.”
Despite her win, Asher-Smith acknowledged that she still needed to improve her performance for the upcoming summer games.
Asher-Smith targets Olympic gold
At her third Olympic Games this summer, Asher-Smith, who won the 200-meter global championship in 2019, will attempt to win an Olympic title for the first time.
The Great Britain athlete crossed the finish line first, ahead of Jamaica’s Lanae-Tava Thomas in third place and Ivory Coast’s Jessika Gbai in second. Moreover, British athlete Zharnel Hughes created history by winning both gold medals in the men’s 200-meter event in the Jamaican tournament.
He defeated Frenchman Pablo Mateo and American Fred Kerley with a time record of 19.96. Hughes now hopes to win his first medal at the 2022 Summer Olympics in Paris after winning the 200-meter and 4×100-meter European titles twice.
Additionally, in the 400 meters, fellow British athlete Matt Hudson-Smith won the gold medal in 44.69 seconds, besting Matthew Boling of the USA and Zandrion Barnes of Jamaica.
Cover Photo: IG
Source: Eurosport
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