Sprinter Dina Asher-Smith has lifted the lid on how she’s been keeping fit during the Coronavirus lockdown period.
The 24-year-old has been seriously training, and has disclosed that she’s keeping in shape by racing with a deer.
Despite being a 200m runner, Asher-Smith said she has busy doing some long-distance training at a deer park.
“The sprinters always joke that we don’t understand how the longer‑distance people go on those long runs,” she said, as quoted by the Guardian.
“When the scenery is so pretty I was starting to understand it. Running in a park among deer is definitely not what I would normally be doing.
“My normal training programme consists of a lot of gym, a lot of short, sharp and powerful things. It was strange but it was a peaceful change.”
Asher-Smith has done quite well for herself since breaking out on the world stage, winning 200m gold medal at the 2019 world championships.
She holds the British records in the 100m and 200m, with times of 10.83s and 21.88, and also won bronze at the 2016 Olympics.
The young sprinter stands as the first British woman to win a global sprint title following her gold-winning exploits at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships in 2018.
Although she had been preparing to grace the 2020 Olympics, she insists she was relieved when the event was postponed due to her struggles with keeping in shape in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK.
“On the day it was announced it was cancelled, I remember feeling relieved in a way. I think it had become unfeasible in the situation we were in at the time. I remember thinking: ‘How am I meant to do Olympic standard training and keep up the shape I need and want to be in for the Olympics from training in my flat?
“Before that, I went through a period like a lot of athletes did of disbelief, thinking: ‘No, don’t be silly. It won’t be cancelled.’ Then, as everything got worse, I thought: ‘I don’t know how tenable this is.’ Then gradually I was accepting: ‘Yeah, this is pretty unlikely’,” Asher-Smith added.
