Tokyo: Torrie Lewis clearly races well when she is angry.
She was cranky with herself after her 100-metre semi-final, and three nights later she took it out on the track in her 200m heat.
Lewis ran a personal-best 22.56 seconds in an aggressive run, chasing Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith on her inside lane to do as she did in the 100m and make it through to the semi-finals. She came second to Asher-Smith’s 22.40s.
Torrie Lewis set a new personal-best time in her heat for the 200 metres.Credit: Getty Images
Lewis’ time was the eighth-quickest of the heats and made for a sprint semi-final double for her.
It was some satisfaction for the 20-year-old, who, despite running one of the fastest times ever by an Australian on Sunday night, was still dirty on herself for not doing better, and missing a chance to do something special. No one else thought likewise, or had any sense of disappointment over her semi-final run, figuring she had not done poorly nor wasted a chance. But she did – she’s that kind of competitor.
Sport offers second chances and at the world championships they can serve them up quickly. Three nights after that 100m semi-final, Lewis smashed through her 200m heat.
Lewis moved to the Netherlands at the start of the year to train with a Dutch master, Femke Bol. The move, she said, had changed and matured her, despite an Achilles injury at the start of the year delaying her year. She trained differently, trained harder and raced herself to fitness after the injury.
More to come
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