By Neil Silver, PA Sport, in Edmonton

Injuries blight medal haul - team

Max Jones has blamed a nightmare catalogue of injuries for Britain's poor performance in the World Championships.

The British team will leave Canada with just two medals between them, which meant they finished a lowly joint 18th in the medal table, behind the likes of the Bahamas.

Jonathan Edwards struck Britain's only gold in the triple jump, while Dean Macey grabbed a bronze in the decathlon. But virtually everything which could have gone wrong, did go wrong, to leave the team with their worst medal total in championship history.

First injuries to Olympic medallists Katherine Merry and Darren Campbell, and world indoor champion Daniel Caines, meant the trio were unable to travel to Edmonton.

Then Denise Lewis, the Olympic heptathlon champion, pulled out on the eve of her event with a stomach complaint.

When the athletics did get under way, medal hopes Dwain Chambers, Christian Malcolm and Paula Radcliffe all failed to make it on to the podium, while Steve Backley surprisingly failed to even qualify for the final of the javelin.

Finally, to add insult to injury, the men's 4x100 metres relay quartet were disqualified in the first round after messing up the final baton changeover.

Team boss Jones could not hide his disappointment at the medal tally, but offered no excuses other than the run of injuries to key individuals.

"It has been a poor games whichever way you look at it," said Jones. "The difference between here and Sydney, where we won six medals including two golds, is that we didn't bring a full strength team.

"In a medium-sized nation like ours, which wins as a benchmark six medals, you have got to bring your 12 medal probables here to do that. If you don't, you are up against it.

"Losing Katharine Merry through injury was a huge blow because I think she would have given us two medals, and Denise Lewis was a real medal hope before pulling out through injury.

"Then you have people here like Donna Fraser and Mark Richardson, who were both running with injuries so were unable to perform to their full potential."

However, Jones is optimistic that Britain's record with injuries will improve in the near future, and the first steps on that road have already been taken.

The sport's governing body, UK Athletics, have brought in an expert from Australia to assess the whole set-up of sports medicine in Britain, and he will make recommendations on how to improve it.

"We need to have a medical structure which caters for elite athletes, not one which is part-time and honorary, but we are addressing that," added Jones.

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