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Campbell tantrum overshadows UK gold

13/08/2006

Great Britain's first gold medal of the championships in the men's 4x100m relay was overshadowed by Darren Campbell refusing to join the celebrations.

The quartet of Dwain Chambers, Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis Francis, who ran in lane three, recovered from a poor first changeover to win in 38.90 seconds on a damp track in Gothenburg.

The victory makes up for the title they won in 2002 which was stripped after Chambers' positive drugs test.

But an emotional Campbell refused to join his teammates for the lap of honour reportedly in response to the media criticism he has received.

He told the BBC afterwards that he was tired of the accusations made in the press, but did not specify who had made them.

"I've made my situation clear. I just can't take the rubbish any more", he said.

"I'm not a hypocrite. How can I do a lap of honour?"

The 32-year-old added: "If everyone else wants to blow a little smoke over it, that's up to them. Hopefully everyone's happy now - they've got their gold."

Britain finished a gutsy fourth in the women's 4x400m relay final after an impressive final leg from Nicola Sanders.

The team of Lee McConnell, Emma Duck, Marilyn Okoro and Sanders finished narrowly behind Poland with Belarus taking second and favourites Russia adding to their World title after winning gold.

Britain were tipped for a medal having won their semi-final but never recovered from a poor opening leg from McConnell which left them 25 metres from the lead after the first changeover.

Sanders told the BBC: "I knew I had lot to do. I did my best to chase them down but I didn't have enough strength to chase them down. I'm pretty gutted, to be honest."

In the women's 1,500m final, Russian took home the medals after Tatyana Tomashova edged past compatriot Yuliya Chizhenko in the home straight to win gold in a championship record time.

Yelena Soboleva took bronze while Britain's Helen Clitheroe finished in 11th.

German Steffi Nerius took gold in the women's javelin with a season's best throw of 65.82m in the fourth round.

The Czech Republic's Barbora Spotakova took silver with 65.64m with Spain's Mercedes Chilla winning bronze with 61.98m while Britain's Goldie Sayers was eliminated after throwing 54.70m.

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