Dina’s D-day looms

British star is poised to defend her titles... but will injury flare up again?

It will take just 11 seconds, perhaps a little less, for Dina Asher-Smith to find out for sure. At the European Championships here tomorrow, the queen of European sprinting will learn if all is again right with her body, if the hamstring strain she suffered at last month’s World Championships in Oregon is now nothing but a distant memory.

Asher-Smith will take to her blocks as defending champion in the 100m and 200m, but after an interrupted preparation the question is whether she still has the power, pace and technical precision to dominate Europe’s best.

It’s just over three weeks since she sustained a ‘light hamstring strain’ during the 4x100m world final, which ruled her out of the Commonwealth Games.

She said at the time it was ‘nothing to worry about’ and her manager Ricky Simms told Sportsmail over the weekend that she has been back in full training for the past two weeks.

As one of the top-12-ranked athletes, Asher-Smith gets a bye into tomorrow’s 100m semi-finals. If she’s back to her best, she will likely prove unstoppable in the final tomorrow night, but if she’s lost any edge in fitness then there’s a cluster of athletes capable of taking her crown.

Chief among them is Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, who was fifth in the world 100m final in Oregon in 10.91sec, in which Asher-Smith finished fourth, equalling her British record with 10.83. then there’s Daryll Neita, who beat Asher-Smith to the British 100m title in June.

Asher-Smith will also race in the 200m and 4x100m relay and, having won gold in all three events at the last edition in Berlin, she’ll be looking for the same in Munich.

Britain topped the medal table at those 2018 Championships, winning seven golds, and in the same stadium that hosted the 1972 Olympics, the men’s 100m will also offer a strong chance of British gold. Defending champion Zharnel Hughes is joined by Reece Prescod, Jeremiah Azu and Ojie Edoburun, though all eyes will be on Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs in tomorrow’s semi-finals after the Italian withdrew from the world semi-finals last month through injury.

Meanwhile, middle-distance stars Jake Wightman, Laura Muir and Keely Hodgkinson will all be looking to make it a summer hat-trick of major championship medals in Munich, having reached the podium at both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games already.

Wightman, who won the world 1,500m title before taking Commonwealth bronze in Birmingham, is dropping down to 800m in Munich.

‘I’d love a medal, that’s what I’d be happy with,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘I’d expect to make the final but that’s not a given at all. the ultimate goal would be to win it.’

Muir looks untouchable in Friday night’s 1500m final, her season’s best of 3:55.28 almost six seconds clear of the next best in the field. But if the Scottish 29-year-old is suffering any fatigue from her world bronze medal and Commonwealth gold, then Ireland’s Ciara Mageean and Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui could prove dangerous.

In the women’s 800m, the path looks clear for Hodgkinson to win her first major championship title outdoors. the 20-year-old won silver at last year’s Olympics and at this year’s World Championships before being beaten by Kenya’s Mary Moraa in the Commonwealth final in Birmingham. Her biggest threat might come from Scot Jemma Reekie.

Matthew Hudson-Smith will feel confident of putting a golden finish on his summer in the men’s 400m final on Wednesday, having won World Championships bronze and Commonwealth silver already.