Buoyed by her podium finishes at the 2024 UK Athletics Championships in Manchester, British sprinter Daryll Neita is now on a countdown to her third consecutive Olympic Games.
The 27-year-old made an almighty entrance at this year’s UK Athletics Championships with a seismic win in the 100m, where she clocked 11.24 and forced fellow Brit Dina Asher-Smith into silver position. Just one day later, she stormed to second place in the 200m – this time dropping behind Asher-Smith – with a season’s best time of 22.46.
‘Sifan Hassan wins three Olympic medals in Paris,’ said Neita, following her 100m victory. ‘I know I have the skill and speed now. It is just about carrying on the momentum and enjoying every moment.’
And enjoy it she will in Paris, where she’ll be heading, alongside Asher-Smith, to represent Team GB in the 100m and 200m this August.
A four-time national champion who specialises and evidently excels in the most explosive running events on the track, Neita is aiming high for this year’s Olympics – and we’ve looked back at the athletics career that has brought her to this point.
Early promise
Neita’s interest in athletics was ignited at young age.
Having watched Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce storm to 100m gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Londoner was inspired to join Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers at the age of 11. She displayed great potential at the club, winning the 100m in the U17 English Schools and rising up the ranks alongside Asher-Smith, who raced with her in the Kent Young Athletes League.
In 2015, Neita was then selected for the European Junior Championships, where – despite running with a hamstring injury – she finish an impressive fourth in the 100m.
Eilish McColgan on how to train to reach the top.
Early senior successes
Neita’s breakthrough year came in 2016, where she finished second in the Olympic Trials – a feat that secured her selection for the Rio Olympic Games and European Championships in Amsterdam that year.
In Rio, while she just fell short of the 100m semi-final, Neita assisted the 4 x 100m relay squad to an almighty Olympic bronze and a British record. In Amsterdam, she also won a silver in the 4 x 100m relay alongside teammates Asher-Smith, Asha Philip and Bianca Williams, whose collective time of 41.81 broke the British record yet again.
A year later, in 2017, Neita claimed silver in the 4 x 100m relay at the home World Championships in London, but was eliminated in the individual 100m semi-final. She then qualified for the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, where she clinched gold in the 4 x 100m relay and finish fourth in the 100m semi-final.
In 2019, at the World Championships in Doha, Neita took home team silver in the 4 x 100m relay but, agonisingly, missed out on the 100m semi-final once again. That same year, she moved to Florida to train under coach Rana Reider.
Unsurprisingly, in 2020, Neita was selected to run as part of Team GB’s 4 x 100m relay squad at the Tokyo Games, with the team scooping Olympic bronze for a second time. But, perhaps just as significantly, it was in Tokyo where Neita made it to a major individual 100m final for the first time in her senior career.
Making a bigger mark
Since the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Neita has continued to seize more metalware of all three colours at Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships.
These include a gold and bronze in the 4 x 100m relay and individual 100m respectively at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, a bronze in the 4 x 100m relay at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest and, most recently, a gold (4 x 100m relay) and silver (200m) at the 2024 European Championships in Rome.
Now, Neita is no doubt itching to add more Olympic glory to her name. Can she upgrade Olympic bronze to silver or gold this summer in Paris? Her pivotal performances in the Stade de France will tell all.
