Asher-Smith out of Games with injury

Asher-Smith, who pulled up midway through the women’s 4x100 metres relay at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, announced her decision on Instagram.

Asher-Smith wrote: “Thankfully I’ve only got a light hamstring strain after pulling up in the 4x1 a few days ago. No major issue and nothing to worry about.

“But due to the short turnaround between the end of the Worlds and the start of the Commonwealth Games in a few days’ time I’m going to have to withdraw.”

Asher-Smith had broken her British record to finish fourth in the 100m final and won a bronze medal in the 200m before suffering her relay setback. She pulled up sharply midway through the third leg but still managed to hand the baton to team-mate Daryll Neita, to led the team to a sixth-place finish.

Asher-Smith had intended to race in the 100m and 4x100m relay in Birmingham, but her diagnosis now also casts serious doubt over her participation at next month’s European Championships.

Asher-Smith added: “I was so excited to race in front of a home crowd and all the British fans. It’s going to be such an amazing competition and I know Team England will do you all proud.

“I’m looking forward to representing you all throughout the rest of the summer and wishing the best of luck to all my team-mates.”

Olympic medallist Jack Carlin is clear he would never have reached the heights he has were it not for the Commonwealth Games. Carlin was part of the Great Britain squad that took team sprint silver at the Tokyo Olympics last summer, adding bronze in the individual event.

The 25-year-old Scot will go into the Commonwealth Games this weekend among the favourites for gold in both the individual sprint and the keirin, looking to upgrade the sprint silver he won in Gold Coast four years ago.

The Commonwealth Games may be an outlier on the international track cycling calendar, slightly awkwardly positioned just a couple of weeks before the European Championships in Munich, with the World Championships to follow in October, but it is not an event Carlin will ever overlook.

Although many riders in the current set-up credit the London Olympics 10 years ago with inspiring their careers, Carlin said the key event for him was the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

“In 2014 I was a spectator in the stands (in Glasgow) and I think that’s what sparked my true passion for the sport,” Carlin said. “Watching my fellow Scots racing in front of a home crowd, I thought to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do one day, to be on the other side of the fence’.

“Representing Scotland only happens once every four years. It’s quite a privilege to be able to put the Saltire on and race under a blue banner. It’s in between major races with the Euros and Worlds coming up, but that doesn’t take away from the fact you want to do your country proud.”

The Glasgow Games brought top-class facilities to Scotland, most obviously the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Newbank, without which Carlin said he would never have had the opportunity to reach the top.

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jack Carlin (@jackcarlin97)

“Without those facilities I would never have been where I am now, I guarantee that for sure,” he said.