Daryll Neita describes ‘interesting dynamic’ with GB rival Dina Asher-Smith
The pair will compete against and alongside each other in Paris in the individual and relay sprint events.
Daryll Neita says she and fellow British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith have perfected the “complicated” art of existing simultaneously as team-mates and rivals.
Both are two-time Olympic bronze medallists as part of the 4x100m relay teams in Rio and Tokyo, and will hope to do at least one better this summer with the quartet in Paris.
Before any batons are passed, however, the pair remain each others’ fierce opposition, equally steely in their determination to reach an individual Olympic podium for the first time.
Neita, speaking at the London Stadium ahead of Saturday’s Diamond League meet, said: “It’s a very interesting dynamic that we have, being sprinters, we’re racing each other week in and week out and we want to destroy each other.
“We’re not friends during the year, but then it comes to the end of a championships and we’re in a relay and we have to get the job done. We have to come together as a team.
“I feel like we’re very professional and we’re able to race each other and want to be the best, but also when it comes to being a team and working together we want to get the job done and we have a great dynamic in our relay team.
“I think it’s been many years of that kind of dynamic and that practice.
“On the track as a team we know how to work together, but in separate lanes, against each other, it’s a different story.”
Asher-Smith, the fastest woman in British history, and Neita, the second-quickest, will line up for the 200m in front of what organisers are expecting to be a sell-out crowd at London Stadium before taking on both the 100m and 200m sprints in Paris.
Their London competition includes American world 200m silver medallist Gabby Thomas, a bronze medallist at the same distance in Tokyo, British compatriot Amy Hunt, and Irish athlete Rhasidat Adeleke.
World 100m bronze medallist Zharnel Hughes is set to make his return from a hamstring injury to take on world 100m and 200m champion Noah Lyles for the first time since his rivalry with the American was featured in the Netflix documentary ‘Sprint’.
Joining them in the event’s 100m curtain-closer is rapidly rising talent Louie Hinchliffe, the recently crowned British champion at the distance, and fellow Olympic debutant Jeremiah Azu, who in May became the first Welshman to break the 10-second barrier.
World heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson takes on the long jump alongside fellow Paris-bound GB heptathlete Jade O’Dowda, while the home crowd will have a chance to see highly touted world indoor pole vault champion Molly Caudery in action before she aims for the Olympic podium.
Charlie Dobson and world silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith feature in the 400m, while Dutch world champion Femke Bol is the big draw in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Olympic and world silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson is one of four Britons to back in the 800m which will also feature Erin Wallace and Georgia Bell, who will switch to the 1500m in Paris alongside Tokyo silver medal-winner Laura Muir.
Six para events will be included alongside the Diamond League programme, including a women’s 800m wheelchair race headlined by seven-time Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft, one of five Paris-bound Paralympians confirmed for London.
While the event will serve as a send-off for all the British athletes involved, it will be a particularly significant occasion for Neita, who now trains in Italy but grew up with the London Stadium in her backyard.
She added: “I’m from 20 minutes away from here so this is my favourite track in the world. It’s my most local track.
“To just be running in front of a home crowd, just before the Olympic Games, is really special.”
