BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2001 | World Athletics

BBC Sport's Steve Cram reflects on another bad day for Britain and considers the implications of Olga Yegorova's controversial victory in the 5000m.

Another day of disappointments here in Edmonton.

It's hard to decide which was worse - watching the British 100m relay team mess up, or seeing Olga Yegorova win the women's 5000m.

The relay disqualification was very hard to swallow.

John Regis had been telling us that things were looking great, and with medals in such short supply, this was one event where we could have rescued some pride.

The relay disqualification was hard to swallow

It wasn't even like we needed to go hard.

It was a heat where the pace was such that we could have gone through if they'd just stopped, given the baton to each other and then carried on.

In some ways I admit I'm not the best person in the world to criticise.

The sprint relay is not something I personally was ever involved in.

But common sense tells you that Jonathan Barbour is a young and inexperienced athlete.

I know Mark Lewis-Francis had a niggle but what's the point of saving your best for the final if you're not going to make it there in the first place?

It's not like this is a one-off. It's now happened twice in two years, at the Sydney Olympics and here at the Worlds.

These are big finals, big opportunities, but we're not taking them. It's an issue that needs to be looked at.

They tell us that the guys have been practising the changeovers enough. What they don't do is run as a team often enough.

The guys are at enough big meets together. It doesn't take much to organise an additional relay race at the end.

The success of the US relay team has a lesson for us. They are brought up on the collegiate scene and run relays far more often than we do in this country.

It was horribly predictable that Yegorova was going to win the 5000m.

I looked at Gabriela Szabo after four laps and she looked absolutely terrible.

Dreadful situation

In my commentary I said it was probably the most unpopular win in athletics.

We still have the medal ceremony to come on the final day on the championships so once again this will dominate proceedings.

In some ways you can't blame Yegorova for the dreadful situation we find ourselves in, with the crowd booing as she came down the finishing straight.

From her point of view she was allowed to run and she came here and did that.

The IAAF is to blame. They have handled the issue so badly. It's been an absolute shambles.

Olga Yegorova
The Yegorova affair has been a shambles

They're more to blame than her for this situation.

She is either caught for doping or she isn't. She either runs or she doesn't.

But no. First the tests from Paris were messed up. Then they announced her suspension before they legally should have done, so she was out and then back in.

Then they said she'd been tested again and could be out - only for her test to come up predictably clean.

As a result the saga has utterly dominated these Worlds and over shadowed everything else.

Seoul was remembered for Ben Johnson. Edmonton will be remembered for Yegorova.