Sport 16-08-2000 Fury Over Decision Of Olympic Selectors who: 400m champion Iwan Thomas what: Angry at being dropped from Olympic squad when: Yesterday snippet: "Iwan Thomas accused Britain`s athletics selectors of being `crooked` on Tuesday night," writes Richard Lewis in Express Sport Live, "after being left out of the 400m team for next month`s Olympic Games in Sydney." Thomas has recently recovered from a hamstring injury and expected to prove his fitness to the Olympic selectors this week. Instead, they have made their decision six days ahead of Monday`s deadline. "The European and Commonwealth 400 metres champion paid the price for missing the Olympic trials last weekend," says The Guardian`s Duncan Mackay, "when the third and final spot on the team was given to his friend and Welsh team-mate Jamie Baulch." "I won`t say the person`s name but the conversation went like this, `I give you my word we will not pick the third runner until August 21`," said a devastated Thomas yesterday. "If I knew that wasn`t the case I`d have been at the trials at the weekend. I was training but was told not to risk the injury and to prove myself the following week." "The news of his omission was broken to him in Sweden as he prepared to race in Malmö," says David Powell, athletics correspondent to The Times. Thomas finished with a time of 45.82sec - "quicker than Baulch`s time in the trial final. Without the emotional turmoil of the day, who knows how much faster he would have run." UK Athletics retorted that they had made no firm promise to Thomas and pointed out that he had only run two races in the last 22 months. The athlete`s only hope of running in the individual 400m is if Mark Richardson fails to convince the International Amateur Athletic Federation that his positive test for nandrolone - recently overturned by UK Athletics - was due to a naturally-occurring reaction to dietry supplements. [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!