More setbacks and misery for Christian Malcolm

By Chris Cottrell, Sportsbeat, at Crystal Palace

CHRISTIAN Malcolm claims he won't call time on his athletics career despite yet another setback.

BLOW: Christian Malcolm won't be flying the British flag at next month's World Athletics Championships in Berlin (Getty Images)

Malcolm burst onto the track and field scene as a promising junior in 1998 but a career punctuated by injuries means that potential is destined to go unfulfilled.

Watching crocked on the sidelines as Great Britain won sprint relay gold in Athens represented his low point but he bounced back in Beijing.

He reached the 200m final, where he finished seventh, although the disqualifications of Churandy Martina and Wallace Spearmon promoted him to fifth.

However, the 30 year old's hopes of a late career blossom have been dealt another blow and he admits the closest he will come to next month's World Championships will be watching on television.

"The time really wasn't great," he said, after running 21.20 seconds at the Aviva Grand Prix, his last chance to impress the watching British selectors.

"The conditions weren't perfect out but I suppose the time was better than it has been - but it wasn't good enough for Berlin.

"We'll have to wait and see what I'm going to do next. I'm not sure right now but I just want to do as many races as I can and get back to running great times.

"I'm still going to watch the World Championships though, even though it will be really painful to not be there.

"But I'm an athletics fan so I'll be supporting the team like everyone else.  It's not the end for me though - I'll be back."

British 800m champion Michael Rimmer was more upbeat as he continued his comeback from illness with a season's best 1.46.13 at Crystal Palace, in a race won by Canada's Gary Reed.

"It's just those last few metres I need to work on," said Rimmer, who finished fourth.

"For the first 600m I just ran my own race and I was happy with my performance.

 "But I need to make sure I don't run out of steam towards the end. But it's just getting better for me all the time and I'm happy enough.  I can definitely get better, I just need to get more races under my belt.

"I will try to get to Monaco on Tuesday and there's a race in Stockholm on Friday as well.  I just need to get used to having lots of bodies around me."