BBC SPORT | Athletics | Anti-climax in Madrid



By Steve Cram BBC Sport

It has been a long, long season for the British team and they were always going to find it hard to hit top form in the World Cup in Madrid.

But it is important to put the two-day event in context.

It is not the most important meet of the season - and British athletes did very well earlier in the season in the competitions that count, like the Commonwealths and Europeans.

Colin Jackson's career won't be measured by what happened on Saturday

It was not a complete waste of time, though, and there were some good individual performances over the two days.

Running for Europe in the women's event, Lee McConnell clocked a personal best of 50.82secs in the 400m while Jo Pavey ran very well to finish third in the 5000m.

Unfortunately, most of the focus will be on Colin Jackson's effort in the 110m hurdles.

Jackson in World Cup woe

Finishing eighth was a real pity. Colin will certainly not have wanted to finish his outdoor career like that.

But it will not bother him too much and the performance will soon be forgotten. It will taker longer to forget the rest of his achievements.

Dwain Chambers' disappointing run in Friday's 100m was also a big surprise.

He was hoping to underline the progress he has made during this year, especially after running a personal best and British record last weekend.

But he could only manage fifth. He was obviously not up for it.

Dwain Chambers finished the 100m in fifth
Chambers finished the 100m in fifth

After running in that world record event, perhaps he should have decided against taking part, like Tim Montgomery and Maurice Greene.

But Dwain has had a great season and this year will be remembered for all the good things he achieved.

On a negative note, I think the IAAF should have come down harder on Seneca Lassiter after the American acted as a pacemaker for Bernard Lagat in Friday's 1500m.

Lassiter destroyed his own country's chances of picking up points. What he did was totally selfish.

Perhaps Africa should have had their points taken away from them as well.

To their credit, the American team have promised to take action against Lassiter.

But if the IAAF wants the public to take these team events more seriously, then it must be seen to be stamping out such behaviour.


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