 The Worlds are under way but can Britain's sprinters raise their game? |
The status of Britain's sprinters as genuine medal contenders was questioned before they even stepped onto the track at the World Championships.
Britain's men wilted in the heat of the Athens sun last summer, failing to reach the 100m or 200m Olympic final for the first time in 28 years.
There was a sense of deja vu in Helsinki when Mark-Lewis Francis, Jason Gardener and Marlon Devonish failed to reach the 100m showdown.
In Athens, Gardener, Lewis-Francis, Darren Campbell and Devonish saved face with a stunning Olympic gold in the 4x100m relay.
But should we really be surprised if Britain's fastest men fail to deliver in Helsinki?
SPRINTING STATUS QUO
With Dwain Chambers serving a two-year drugs ban, Jason Gardener remains the only active British sprinter to dip under the benchmark 10-second barrier, his 9.98secs set in 1999.
Lewis-Francis did run 9.97 at the World Championships in 2001, but a faulty wind gauge meant it could not be counted as a legal time.
Since then he has failed to push on, with his best mark of 10.04 set in 2002.
As for the 200m, John Regis' official British record of 19.94 has stood for 12 years.
Christian Malcolm set his personal best of 20.08 at the 2001 World Championships, while Marlon Devonish ran his best time (20.19) in 2002.
Of all the senior sprinters going to the Worlds, only Gardener has shown any sort of form, running 10.09 in London recently - his best time in five years.
But the men's Olympic final in Athens last year, when five athletes ran under 10 seconds, showed the step up required to break into true world class.
CLIMATE CONTROL
Olympic relay gold medallist Marlon Devonish has a novel explanation for Britain's struggle to produce a world-conquering sprinter - it's all down to the weather.
 Devonish sought warmer climes by training in Australia over the winter |
"We just haven't got the climate," Devonish told BBC Sport.
"For example, the Americans are able to do their winter training in hot conditions, whereas we have to do lots of travelling for warm weather training."
BBC pundit and joint-110m hurdle world record holder Colin Jackson agrees with Devonish.
"The sun encourages sprinting and training more than anything else," said Jackson. "It's a massive bonus."
TALENT POOL
The UK has a population of 60m from which UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins has to find potential British athletes.
In contrast, his US counterpart Craig Masback can draw talent from 295m.
"The state of British sprinting is good when you look at the population we have here," Collins told BBC Sport.
"We are always going to suffer against America - and now you have the emergence of China."
DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE
Lewis-Francis blamed a recurrence of a hamstring injury for his poor performance in Helsinki, where he crashed out in the quarter-finals.
But the 22-year-old went into the championships under a cloud of criticism from leading American sprint coaches John Smith and Trevor Graham.
Smith called him "too comfortable" while Graham said, "He's not even close to fulfilling himself."
Sprinters are often labelled arrogant, moody and spoilt - accused of accepting lucrative sponsorship deals before producing the goods.
The high-profile nature of their event means the financial incentives from sponsors are higher than for less glamorous events.
 Lewis-Francis has failed to convert his junior golds to titles at senior level |
Is Lewis-Francis, who won double world junior gold aged just 17, guilty of believing his own hype?
"People think Mark has under-performed because of the huge potential he showed as a junior," said Jackson.
"And there are a lot of questions that haven't been answered. How good is his coach? Are his facilities up to scratch? What is his routine?"
In contrast to the struggling Lewis-Francis, Gatlin only turned professional in 2003 and - just eights months older than Lewis-Francis - he is already Olympic champion and favourite for world gold.
FORWARD THINKING
"A success at the Worlds would have been getting one of our guys into the 100m final," Jackson admits.
But while there might be slim pickings in Helsinki, there are genuine reasons to be confident that by London 2012 the sprint finals might be packed with home-grown talent.
Londoner Harry Aikines-Aryeetey claimed the 100m-200m double at July's World Youth Championships, aged just 16.
The following week Craig Pickering, Simeon Williamson and Alex Nelson landed an historic 100m treble at the European Juniors.
Pickering,18, has gone to Helsinki as part of the relay squad and Collins believes it is important to start looking to the next generation now.
"For me the challenge is the conversion rate (from junior success to senior success), because there are people out there," he says.
"Achieving on a world-class level is a long-term job. Now we have to manage that process as early as we can."
MMIX
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
