This is Stuart Weir’s second piece on the superb London DL meeting from this weekend, held on 19 July 2025.
The Women’s 200 meters in London
Julien Afred the Olympic Champion at 100 won the200m in London in a work leading 21.71 seconds. She is now the joint 9th fastest woman in history.
The result was
1 Julien Alfred 21.71
2 Dina Asher-Smith 22.25
3 Amy Hunt 22.31
Alfred said of her run: “It was a strong first 150 metres of the race, and I managed to control it to finish strongly. It was a great race for me, and races like this give me a lot of confidence as we get closer to Tokyo. I did the 200m last year before the Olympics and I finished second, but seeing how I ran today and how comfortable I felt, I am a lot more confident in my 200m heading into the worlds”.
Winner in the Olympic 100 but second to Gabby Thomas in the 200 in Paris, which is her better distance? I had an opportunity to ask her in Stockholm. The answer is now entirely straight- forward. She told me: “That’s a good question. My coach thinks I’m a good 200 metre runner but I would say the 100. I’ve been working on the 200 this year, trying to change my mentality towards it. Also, I don’t think I am a good bend runner – but my coach doesn’t agree! I did run first leg quite a lot in college relays but I think that I have a lot of work to do when it comes to running the bend better. But it just takes practice to become a good bend runner – I would hope – and that’s something that I’m working on now.
“I just love running the 100 more than the 200. I mean everybody has a favourite and mine is the 100. I know when I was in college, I always said I do not like the 200, but that has changed a lot. I do enjoy it now and am learning how to run it and learning to trust my strength more now because I do have a lot more strength. However, I would say that the 100 is just an event that I truly love. And I don’t know if that will ever change”.
So now we know – I think!
Dina Asher-Smith never gives much away and made the comment I would have expected:
“A season’s best in front of the home crowd was the aim today so even better and what makes me particularly happy is it was a good run for me today. I was so focussed on being fluid and relaxed and using the strength I had built from doing some 400s at the start of the season”.
Amy Hunt made no attempt to hide her feelings, Tweeting: “Six years, a ruptured tendon, a degree from Cambridge and a move to Italy and I finally ran a PB. Never give up!” She added: “ That was very emotional because my PB is from six years ago when I was 17 so I have come a long way since then. To finally get past it after so long I am so happy. Of course it would be nice to be fastest Brit but mostly I just need to get quicker each race and that was what I did today. It shows what I can do with a good lane and the vibe is right. I am going to double up at the trials as I want to target that for Tokyo”.
Darryl Neita’s 22.69 for sixth place was perhaps disappointing but she has changed coaches and countries and is making a lot of adjustments.
It was a great race and times might have been better had the track not still been wet from the lunch-time deluge.
By the way Dina, Amy and Darryl with Desiree Henry had run a WL 41.69 in a relay an hour and a half earlier – keeps them out of mischief.
