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.