In a victory that came down to a mere thousandth of a second, Dina Asher-Smith crossed the finish line in Birmingham with a championship record and a wide grin. One that masked a far more significant revelation. Just weeks before the World Championships in Tokyo, Asher-Smith has made a bold and abrupt decision.
It was not long after a disappointing performance in the Eugene Diamond League that Asher-Smith decided enough was enough. She has left Texas, split from coach Edrick Floreal, and returned to London. The timing is highly unusual, but the results are difficult to argue with. Quietly, without fanfare, she boarded a flight back to the UK. “I’m really happy. I’m based in London and I’m just having fun,” Asher-Smith stated while speaking to Athletics Weekly.
Asher-Smith’s phrasing was guarded, but her mood was unmistakable. “I feel very confident and capable today. I love it. I’m such a London girl. I tried. I promise I tried my hardest. But yeah… of course.” She smiled as she said it, but the departure from Floreal was clearly definitive. And Asher-Smith going back to London also meant that she won’t be training with Julien Alfred anymore.
Though she avoided specifics, the implication was unmistakable. Whatever had been planned in Texas was no longer viable. The coaching partnership with Floreal, formed just late last year, is now over. The 200m final in Birmingham demonstrated something beyond form. It revealed clarity. Asher-Smith led confidently around the bend and held off Amy Hunt by the narrowest measurable margin. The 22.14-second finish was not just a season’s best. It was a mark strong enough to have earned her bronze at the last Olympic Games.
Asher-Smith’s move carries implications beyond geography. Her return to form suggests more than comfort. It points to deliberate recalibration. In her words, “I’ve been working on some stuff to do with my race phasing, race prep, and I think as you can see it’s paid dividends.” Her result in Birmingham, combined with a strong showing behind Julien Alfred at the London Diamond League, has positioned her as a serious contender ahead of Tokyo.
With less than a month until the World Championships, Dina Asher-Smith has chosen to bet on familiarity and instinct. The gamble may have come late, but if Sunday’s victory is any measure, it was well-placed. The stage in Tokyo is waiting, and Asher-Smith, now on her own terms, appears fully prepared to take it. Meanwhile, speaking about life in Texas, Asher-Smith described it as feeling like a ‘fish out of water.’
Dina Asher-Smith describes her experience training in Texas
In a season characterised by transition rather than upheaval, Dina Asher-Smith has come to regard London not simply as a place, but as a grounding influence. An invisible axis around which her professional ambitions continue to revolve. Despite having relocated to Austin to train under Edrick Floreal among elite company, Asher-Smith’s reflections on her departure from the UK reveal a striking duality. Progress with a persistent sense of dislocation. Her life in London, once predictable and tethered to familiar rhythms, now feels remote but not forgotten. “
It’s really, really hot,” she said of Austin. “I wake up every day and the first thing in my head is to make sure I’m hydrating.” That remark, while ostensibly mundane, subtly betrays a longing for the understated comfort of her former life.
London, for all its congestion and overfamiliarity, represented an ecosystem she had mastered. In contrast, Austin remains a place she is learning to inhabit rather than belong to.
Asher-Smith’s attachment to London is not steeped in sentimentality but rather in a subtle recognition of the role place plays in psychological stability. Though she no longer trains on British soil, her language signals an emotional geometry that still orients toward home. For all the gains in speed and resilience, the dissonance lingers.
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