Joy turns to tears for Lewis Francis

World Athletics Championships: Britain's young sprinter suffers semi-final disappointment

The World Championship 100 metres semi-final yesterday proved to be a race too far for Britain's 18-year-old world junior champion Mark Lewis Francis, who faded to fifth after getting away to a poor start.

But Britain's other representatives, Dwain Chambers and Christian Malcolm, forced their way through to the final in which they finished fifth and seventh respectively behind the gold-medallist, America's Maurice Greene.

Having become the first teenager to break 10 seconds in the quarter-final, albeit with a time of 9.97sec that was disallowed for record purposes because of a malfunction in the wind gauge, Lewis Francis had jauntily predicted that it didn't matter, because he would run even faster the next day.

Sadly when that day came he was unable to perform with the natural ebullience he had shown in the previous two rounds, and could only finish fifth in 10.26 in a race won by Greene. For a while afterwards, the Birmingham youngster squatted on the track as he looked at the replay on the giant screen as if unable to take in what had happened to him, before walking past reporters with pain in his eyes and nothing to say. Eventually he did break down in tears, saying: "I am very disappointed as I didn't run as well as I know I can. I didn't get a good start and I thought about it a bit too much."

His coach, Steve Platt, said: "It is all part of the learning curve for Mark. Obviously we are disappointed about him not making the final, but we are especially upset that his world junior record time will not be ratified ­ everyone knows that was legal."

Earlier, Lewis Francis had used a short, popular word to express his disappointment at learning that his record had been annulled because of a faulty wind gauge.

Lewis Francis had whooped and bucked with delight on seeing the digital display which indicated he had become the first teenager to break 10.00sec, a performance he had apparently achieved into a headwind of 2.1 metres per second. But officials ruled later that a temporary malfunction of the wind gauge had resulted in some "unusual readings" in the quarter-finals, where Greene ran the fastest time of 9.88 into what was credited as a 5.1 metres per second headwind.

Whatever the vagaries of the wind gauge, it is clear that the newly-laid Mondo track at the Commonwealth Stadium is favouring sprinters, who already benefit from running at a venue which is 2,200 feet above sea level. Although that is well short of the level of 3,000 feet, above which performances are deemed to be altitude-assisted for record purposes, it is clearly going to be beneficial in creating fast times.

A season's best of 45.14sec was not enough to earn Mark Richardson a place in the 400 metres final as he was edged out of third place by Hamdan Al-Bishi of Saudi Arabia. Iwan Thomas, like Richardson, struggling with an Achilles tendon injury, never looked remotely like qualifying in his semi-final, where his discomfort was obvious as he finished last.

Marion Jones registered a first round time of 10.93sec as she got her defence of the 100m title underway yesterday.

Before recording her time, Jones had been the second athlete in the heat to false start. Under the rules which the International Association of Athletics Federations has agreed to put in place by 2003, which only allows one false start per race for events up to 400 metres, the world champion would now be disqualified.

There was disappointment for Britain in the women's 400 metres hurdles, where Natasha Danvers, who has been training alongside Greene with the HSI Group in California, missed a qualifying place after finishing fourth in 56.36sec.

Danvers, with a personal best of 54.95sec, had been tipped for a medal here by both Greene and the group's coach, John Smith. But what transpired was another disappointment to set alongside her fall at the European Cup two months ago.

The chances of Donna Fraser, fourth in the Olympic 400m, filling the gap left by the withdrawal of Olympic bronze medallist Katharine Merry look slim, given her own recent recovery from an Achilles tendon injury. But she managed to negotiate the first round yesterday.