Young blood Twell shines while Macey's battered body fails

While Dean Macey, our favourite never-say-die decathlete, was today left contemplating whether it was time to quit after failing in a last-ditch attempt at recording the qualifying standard in Hexham, young Steph Twell was doing nothing to quell the excitable talk of her being the 'new Paula Radcliffe' thanks to a superb 1500 metres triumph at the world junior championships in Poland.

The victory of 18-year-old Twell looks set to see her granted an Olympic debut in Beijing but for 30-year-old Macey, a third Games was not to be as he pushed his bruised and battered body through a final bid to gain the 8,000 point 'A' standard qualifying mark required, only to fall short even of the 'B' standard with 7,491 points.

Suffering from a groin injury during Saturday's long jump and requiring four injections just to get him through the second day, the Canvey Islander was in agony all day. His injuries worsened from event to event, but he refused to give in, citing the decathlete's motto: "I've started so I'll finish."

Yet afterwards, the man who finished fourth in the last two Games was left conceding that it may have been his last stand. "I may be young but I'm beaten to bits." he said. "The reality is with the problems I've had over the last two days it's difficult to see me getting back to the level that I need to be at. I need to make that decision on my future and I'll make it in the next week or two."

If it was his farewell, typically Macey refused to let the 10-event monster knock him out. He crashed on to the grass bank, screaming in agony, after the sprint hurdles, but still battled on, chucking the discus a decent 45.64m and clearing 4.40m in the pole vault before struggling so badly with a further groin injury that he could barely walk by the time it came to throwing the javelin. Even his fellow decathletes offered him a resounding ovation as, inevitably, he struggled home last in the 1500m.

The news led to plenty of tributes back in Birmingham, where fellow multi-eventer Kelly Sotherton, who reckoned she had always found him an inspiration, said it would be a sad day if this had been Macey's last decathlon.

"He's always been great, so talented that he should have been Olympic champion twice over, but unfortunately he's just been so unlucky with constant injuries and his body just couldn't cope with the pressure of being a decathlete."

With the sport on the lookout for new stand-outs, the best news came from Bydgoszcz where Twell won Britain's only gold at the world junior championships, making her break from the bell to win the 1500m in 4 minutes 15.09 seconds.

With the A standard already under her belt, Twell ran quicker even than yesterday's trial winner, Lisa Dobriskey, and now seems sure to join the Commonwealth champion in the team.

"Mentally I'm getting stronger. I just have to keep my feet on the ground and keep working hard," said Twell. "Now I can't wait to race at Crystal Palace in a couple of weeks time."