Sickener for Britain

Phillips Idowu, one of

the few British athletes

with the potential to win

a medal at next month's

World Championships,

hopped, stepped and jumped

yesterday into the lengthy

queue at their doctor's surgery.

A selection trials that began like an

audition for Casualty extras ended with

Idowu joining the sick list. He complained of a muscle in his back

going into spasm when his foot hit the

ground, withdrawing from the competition

after one jump of 15.84metres,

almost two metres below his best.

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But the Commonwealth and European

indoor champion left the seriousness

of the injury in some doubt.

"If I'm still in pain I won't go to the

World Championships," he said, but

then added: "I'm certainly hopeful of competing at Crystal Palace this

week. It's a recurring problem. I'm

not in panic mode right now but

it's a little bit worrying."

Certainly for Britain it is with the

likes of Paula Radcliffe, Dean

Macey, Nathan Douglas and Ashia

Hansen already out of contention.

Idowu ranks sixth in the world,

one of the few of the team they will

announce tomorrow after the

three-day Norwich Union World

Trials and UK Championships in

the present world top 10.

For the first time in 20 years, the

first two in each event are not

guaranteed selection even if they

have the 'A' qualifying standard.

The selectors have left themselves

a get-out-of-jail card called

'exceptional circumstances'.

The likelihood is that they will be

picked and, again for the first

time, they may be joined by those

with the 'B' standard if they are of

an age where they will benefit

from the experience.

Marlon Devonish provided a

dilemma for the selectors. He is

guaranteed the 100m after winning

that and he is a mainstay of

the relay. The question is whether

he should also be asked to run the

200m after he completed the

sprint double for a second successive year the first time that has

been achieved at the national

championships since 1953.

"I don't think whether I double

or not will be my decision," said

Devonish, 31, wise in the ways of

selectors after a decade at the top.

'What I would really like is to run

the 100m and see."

He may get his wish because

nobody else is qualified for the

200m. Alex Nelson, 19, winner of

the European junior title last

weekend, led him in yesterday's

final for 190 metres but missed the

qualifying time of 20.75sec by less

than a tenth of a second.

Some will have an anxious day

waiting for the phone to ring.

Becky Lyne, a European 800m

medallist last year but struggling

with injury this summer, ran

1500m, failed to get on the podium

then saw Jemma Simpson win an

exciting 800m against Marilyn

Okoro and Jenny Meadows. All

three are qualified and could get

the nod ahead of last year's

British athlete of the year.

Another sweating on his place is

Tim Benjamin, the only British

finalist in an individual event at

the last World Championships. In

his absence from the 400m, to give

an injury more time to recover,

Andy Steele confirmed his new status as Britain's No 1. But Dave

Collins, Britain's chief selector,

said: "We have an opportunity to

see Tim at Crystal Palace on Friday,

so let's see what he produces."

No second chance for Jade Johnson,

a Commonwealth and European

medallist who has had a catalogue

of injuries in the past two

years. There is no women's long

jump on the Palace programme.

She needed 6.70m at least but

her last jump, her best, was ruled

a foul. "Officials sometimes don't

realise that their decision can

mess with careers," she said,

knowing after finishing second to

Kelly Sotherton by two centimetres

that she will not be picked.

Standards in some events remain

embarrassingly low and some athletes

had only to turn up as their UK

Athletics contracts demand to be

sure of selection. Mo Farah, European

5,000m silver medallist, won by

the length of the final straight, Andy

Baddeley won the 1500m by

15metres and Jo Pavey won the

women's 5,000m by half a lap.

Shanaze Reade

became a world

champion cyclist

yesterday for the

second time this

year on a

completely

different set of

wheels and

revealed she is

considering

changing again to

win a third.

Reade, 18, one of the

Magnificent Seven

prospects for the

2012 Olympic Games

Sportsmail is

following, won the

senior women's title

at the world BMX

championships in

Victoria, Canada,

four months after

taking gold on the

track.

"I'm over the moon

. . . it hasn't sunk in

yet," she told coach

Jeremy Hayes over

the phone. Her next

target may be the

world mountain

bike championships

at Fort William in

Scotland in

September.

She is favourite to

win Olympic gold in

Beijing when BMX

becomes an Olympic

sport for the first

time next year.

Reade took up BMX

in her early teens

when she went to a

track to watch two

of her cousins