Britain's most injured athlete Macey set to retire after failing to qualify for Beijing

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Utterly despondent after he had failed by more than 500 points to achieve the Olympic qualifying A standard for decathlon in his first attempt at the 10-event marathon for 28 months, Britain's most injured athlete spent the long drive home to Essex from Hexham contemplating his future.

After a career blighted by injuries Dean Macey may retire after failing to qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games

After nine events at his first decathlon since he won Commonwealth gold, he knew he would have to run the 1500 metres in 4min 5sec to qualify, and he knew that was beyond him.

So he jogged the distance in more than five minutes to finish with 7,491, enough to win the competition but not to surpass even the B standard that would have allowed Britain to send him as its sole representative.

Not that the B standard interested Macey. 'If I don't think I am good enough to get gold I am not prepared to go through all the blood and guts and agony for nothing,' he had said before the event. Afterwards he said: 'I'm going home to contemplate retirement.'