Neil Black is quick to pick up baton and defend Britain’s stayaway sprinters

'Our focus is towards [the Worlds in] Beijing, it’s towards [the Olympics] in Rio'

Head of British Athletics Neil Black is confident all four relay teams can win medals at this year’s World Championships and the Olympics in 2016 (Getty Images)

British Athletics’ performance director, Neil Black, has leapt to the defence of the country’s absent sprinters at the weekend’s IAAF World Relays and remains confident all four relay teams can win medals at this year’s World Championships and the Olympics in 2016.

Richard Kilty criticised his fellow 100-metre runners for failing to commit to the collective cause after what was, in effect, a British B team was selected for the World Relays in the Bahamas and failed to reach the 4x100m final. Had they done so, it would have guaranteed automatic Olympic qualification.

Black said he understood the frustrations of the World and European indoor 60m champion but defended the likes of James Dasaolu and Chijindu Ujah for their no-show. “The absences were injuries, a few guys with exams and a few guys heading on personal, individual plans,” Black pointed out.

“Our focus is towards [the Worlds in] Beijing, it’s towards [the Olympics] in Rio. In the bigger picture that one event will be forgotten in a few weeks’ time and there’s loads of time to qualify.

“We’ve met two times prior to the block of training out in the US as a group and discussed the challenges of it, so everyone’s aware. With particular reference to Adam [Gemili – absent to focus on his university exams] and James, they are on the world-class performance programme as individual athletes and, as a result of that, we allow them a degree of preference and planning to their individual programme.

Great Britain’s Bianca Williams in action during the 4x100m relay in Nassau (Getty)

“That creates a scenario where you’ll always get that thing of, ‘Hang on, what about the relays?’ when you’ve got an equal opportunity to do well in relays. But we have to look at the bigger picture.”

Britain entered teams in four events at the World Relays: the women’s 4x100m and 4x400m teams won bronze medals, while the men’s 4x400m team came sixth in their final, all securing qualification for the 2016 Games. Following that display, Black is brimming with confidence about Britain’s chances at the major competitions, saying: “We’re unashamed about it that we believe we’re genuine medal contenders in all four events.”

The overall selection process, though, led to further criticism from Kilty and fellow 4x100m runner James Ellington for the failure to enter a 4x200m team. Ellington tweeted on the second night of action: “So frustrating knowing that we had the firepower to challenge for gold in the 4x200m relay and did not get a chance.”

In the build-up to these championships, European and Commonwealth 800m silver medallist Lynsey Sharp also voiced her disappointment about not being able to compete in a potentially star-studded 4x800m line-up with the likes of Jenny Meadows, Laura Muir and Jessica Judd.

But Black was quick to defend the selection process. “Right from the start from the whole competition we’ve been really clear that this competition was about the 4x100s and 4x400s, with the focus on the World Championships this year and the Olympics next year,” he said.