Young Orpington athlete keen to learn from errors
3:11pm Wednesday 3rd August 2011 in Athletics
By Ben Baker
ORPINGTON sprinter Geraldina Asher-Smith has vowed to learn from her painful mistakes as her European Youth Olympic Festival dreams were dashed last week.
The 15-year-old looked in dominating form as she breezed into the 200m final thanks to a new personal best time 24.16s in her semi-final.
But it was in the showpiece event where disaster struck when the Newstead Wood School for Girls missed out on a chance at a medal after false starting and being disqualified.
However, after wiping away the tears, Asher-Smith was keen to put the whole trip into perspective, insisting she can still be pleased with her week’s work despite the upsetting finish.
“It was very disappointing to not run the final because I was running really well and I was in really good form leading into it and was confident of getting a medal,” she said, “I was really nervous, as everyone else was, and I shook in the blocks and unfortunately that counted as a false start.
“It was my first big competition so I will take this experience and learn from it. It’s a learning curve and I will make sure that I do not do that again.
“And I can still be pleased with how I did in the build up to that as I ran a huge personal best and it’s really important as I ran sub 24.2s, which is a big marker for me.
“Coming over the line in the semi I was like ‘woah’. I worked so hard to get here and it’s been amazing.
“It’s just a shame I couldn’t finish it off.”
Despite her final heartache, Asher-Smith knows her time at Trabzon’s Sogutlu Athletics Stadium will live long in her memory in a positive way.
The Blackheath & Bromley Harriers athlete pulled on the GB vest for the first time on the Black Sea coast and admits to wanting more after getting a taste of the international limelight.
She added: “I can’t put into words how much I appreciate being able to compete in Turkey and it’s a privilege to represent GB and wear the vest.
“I feel as though I have grown up this week, I am only 15 and a lot of the team are 17, so it’s my first year and I have had so much fun.
“So I can still take a lot of pride away from this and I will go away with things to work on as I try hard to get back to this level as soon as I can.”
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