There has been a lot of discussion on the list about Mark Lewis-Francis
after his brilliant World Junior championships success.
The discussion has centered on his decision to pass the chance of Olympic
selection.
What has not been made clear is that while he was a certainty to have been
chosen to be on the British Olympic squad, it is highly unlikely that he
would actually have run in Sydney.

1. In the individual 100m - the first two in the British Trials were
guaranteed selection - and those two were Dwain Chambers (10.11) and Darren
Campbell (10.12). These two were later 4th and 6th in Sydney.
The third choice was at the discretion of the selectors.
At the Trials Lewis-Francis was 3rd in 10.24 and Jason Gardener 4th in
10.29.
Lewis-Francis declined before the selection was made, but I think it very
probable that Gardener (who had run 9.98 in 1999 when he was a World
finalist and who had also won the 2000 European Indoor title) would have
been chosen on his proven championships form. He had been held back by
injury, but had run 10.09 in Laussanne on 5 July and had beaten Campbell,
Chambers ... and Maurice Greene in the GB v USA match at Gateshead on 2
July. 
Lewis-Francis had not met Gardener before the Trials, but had run 10.10 to
win the B race at the British Grand Prix.

2. Lewis-Francis would have been selected for the 4x100m relay squad, but
again I do not believe that he would have been included in the team that ran
any of the rounds. The management (wrongly) stuck with proven relay runners
as Britain's squad for the first-round heat was Allyn Condon, Jason
Gardener, Marlon Devonish and Dwain Chambers - and this team managed to get
disqualified on two relay change-overs.
Campbell (and perhaps Christian Malcolm) was rested - and a much faster
runner than Condon and Devonish in Ian Mackie was ignored, so I think that
Lewis-Francis, who had never run with the others, would not have run in this
event either.

So ­ surely he was right to forget about just going to Sydney for experience
of just being close to the action, but rather to concentrate on the World
Junior title (and relay gold as well).

Peter Matthews,
Editor International Athletics Annual, Co-publisher Athletics International
10 Madgeways Close, Great Amwell, Ware, Herts SG12 9RU, England
Tel. 44 (0)1920 870434, Fax 44 (0)1920 877392


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