“I’m pretty sure I will be able to dip under 9.9sec and into 9.8sec in the near future.”
In a career beset by injury, it looked like he was finally going to prove himself on the big stage.
A matter of weeks after making his prediction to the Telegraph, Dasaolu began his season with a modest run of 10.14sec as he finished last at the Doha Diamond League.
By the time the season ended he had only surpassed that time by two-hundredths of a second. Not once in the entire year did Europe’s fastest man break 10.10sec.
When Chijindu Ujah beat him at the British Championships in July, Dasaolu insisted he was content with a distant second place and a time of 10.24sec.
He was fooling no one, but the real test would arrive at the World Championships the following month. Could the global stage break the malaise that seemed to be bringing him down?
Dasaolu did not come close to his PB of 9.91sec in 2015
First out of the blocks in his 100m heat, the Briton was cruising through to the semi-finals when he reached the 70m-mark and almost stopped.
It was a shocking error – a moment of sheer madness and complete embarrassment. Convinced that he would advance with little exertion, Dasaolu eased down to a jog before glancing to his right, where three of his rivals were in the process of passing him, and attempting to pick up the pace again.
Unsurprisingly the damage had been done and he trailed home in fourth, missing out on a fastest loser’s qualification spot by just 0.01sec.
Dasaolu was back at his home in Loughborough when he received the news he had been dreading this November. After a season in which he finished joint 71st in the global rankings, the reigning European 100m champion was axed from individual British Athletics funding.
Less than a year out from the Rio Olympics he was included only on the relay funding list – despite not being part of the British sprint relay set-up for a number of years – and given a clear message by the people who run the sport in this country: We do not think you are capable of challenging for a medal at the Olympics.
Aged 28 and having lost the faith of his superiors, Dasaolu will almost certainly not be around for the next Olympics in Tokyo. This is his final shot.
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