Dina Asher-Smith suffers further frustration as she cramps up again in Munich
After suffering a cramp so severe she felt like retiring in the blocks, Daryll Neita stormed through the pain barrier to a fine 100m bronze medal at the European Championships in Munich on Tuesday.
It was the same shade she won at the Commonwealth Games, though it was all the more impressive due to the excruciating stab she felt in the moments before the gun.
As a coincidence that will have severely deflated the British contingent, Dina Asher-Smith also suffered cramp in the same race, but while she was forced to limp home in a distant last, Neita battled to third behind German gold medallist Gina Luckenkemper and Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland.
Dina Asher-Smith’s charge for a major medal was wrecked as she suffered from severe cramp
But Britain’s Daryll Neita managed to claim the bronze medal during the 100m final in Munich
Such was the closeness of the showdown, all three were separated by just 0.01sec, with Neita crossing in 11sec and Luckenkemper beating Kambundji by a nose on the line, having trailed the entire way.
Neita, whose cramp was symptomatic of a gruelling three-championship summer, said: ‘I honestly wasn’t going to race but who is going to believe me if I said I was cramping up before? I got a medal somehow on one leg.’
For Asher-Smith, the issue in Munich compounded the disappointment of missing the Commonwealth Games due to a hamstring injury.
Her 200m bronze medal at the worlds means she has generated a strong return for the season, albeit with a sense of what else might have been.
German Gina Luckenkemper (pictured) took gold, beating Swiss runner Mujinga Kambundji
She said: ‘I’ll go back and have a chat about my recovery and how I’m hydrating. I feel good which is why I’m frustrated.’
In the men’s 100m, Italy’s Marcell Jacobs added the European title in a championship record of 9.95sec to the Olympic gold he collected last year.
He was run close by Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who won silver in 9.99sec, ahead of his fast-rising team-mate Jeremiah Azu in bronze.
Earlier, Britain’s Jacob Fincham-Dukes thought he had won the long jump silver, only for his best jump of 8.06m to be retrospectively ruled a foul under protest by the French team.
