Athletics: Danvers loses bronze after falling at final hurdle

England's spectacular mishaps of Saturday night were unhappily relived last night when Natasha Danvers, clear in the bronze medal position in the 400 metres hurdles, fell at the final hurdle and finally jogged home a despondent and dis-spirited last, in a painful time of 1min 27.12sec.

It was a sad reprise of the spectacle which saw Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis hit the deck in the 100 metres final.

The gold went to Australia's world junior champion Jana Pittman, who won in 54.40sec, with silver going to Debbie-Ann Parris of Jamaica.

Pittman's task was made easier by the absence of Jamaica's Deon Hemmings, Olympic gold and silver medallist respectively in the last two Games, who did not start in lane six.

Britain's 41-year-old former team captain Bob Weir was reflecting yesterday upon the achievement of earning ano-ther Commonwealth medal 20 years after his first, when he won the hammer event.

After taking the discus bronze with an effort of 59.24 metres, behind Canada's Jason Tunks and South Africa's Frantz Kruger, who won with 66.39m, the Midlander spoke of the difficult decision he made to continue his career after winning the discus title in Kuala Lumpur four years ago.

"I was going to stop competing then," he said.

"But when I found out the Games were going to be in Manchester I felt if I could just go one year at a time, maybe, just maybe, I could make it to Manchester.

"And I'm, very happy that I did. I wasn't ranked in the top three, maybe not even in the top six, so a bronze medal is fabulous."

He now plans to compete for just one more year before spending more time with his children and wife Kim.

"You won't see me at the Athens Olympics unless I'm coaching or spectating," he said.

There was further cheering news for Britain's longest lasting athlete, as he made it clear that: "Bits and pieces of my technique are beginning to come together". Just think what he will be like when he gets everything sorted out!

A personal best of 2:00.95 saw England's 17-year-old English Schools' champion Charlotte Moore through to the 800 metres final as she secured third place in the fastest of the two semi-finals.

It was a huge step forward from her previous mark of 2:02.49, putting her close to the kind of territory that her coach Christina Boxer occupied when she won the Commonwealth 1500m title in 1982. Mozambique's Olympic champion Maria Mutola won the other semi in 2:01.59, with England's Jo Fenn negotiating a race that was bumpy in places to take the third qualifying spot in 2:03.04.

Kim Collins, winner of Saturday's eventful 100 metres, did not seek a double here, pulling out of the 200m heats because of fatigue.

Chris Rawlinson, whose preparations for these Games were undermined by food poisoning, for which he is still taking medication, played things safe in reaching today's 400m hurdles final in a time of 49.66, almost a second and a half slower than he has run this season.

'Two weeks ago I would have said I was very confident, but I had the food poisoning last week and I wanted to see how this race would have affected me. That's why I decided to jog the last 150 metres. I want to save myself for the final,' said the 30-year-old Yorkshireman, whose problems occurred when he left a piece of chicken in his car during the hot weekend of the European trials in Birmingham and then drove home and ate it.

Rawlinson will have to be smarter than that today if he is to live up to the potential he has demonstrated this season by beating everyone except the world No 1 Felix Sanchez.

It was Matthew Elias of Wales who caught the eye in the semi-finals, partly for his Welsh record time of 49.11, the fastest of the day, and partly for his splodge of pinky-red hair in the Beckham World Cup style.

"It was actually supposed to go red," he said.

"But it all ran when I dyed it. If I've got enough time I might do something different for the final."

Dalton Grant, who has founded a reputation on coming in late to high jump events, qualified for these Games in similar style by recording the qualifying mark of 2.26 metres on the last possible day in the Belfast meeting earlier this month.

The 36-year-old Londoner won this title in Kuala Lumpur four years ago and made sure he made it through to the final yesterday with a qualifying effort of 2.15m, which he got first time.

His team mate Ben Challenger, the silver medallist in Malaysia, made it through as well.

"I can feel the gold," said Grant, who is likely to receive his strongest challenge from the Canadian pair of Mark Boswell and Kwaku Boateng.