Athletics: McConnell claims silver but Caines misses medal

There was a medal winning run by a British 400m runner in the City of Manchester Stadium last night. It was not, however, the English athlete who had been expected to finish in the frame in the men's race.

As Daniel Caines lost out on a bronze by an agonising 0.01sec, Lee McConnell announced her arrival as a flying Scotswoman of world class.

From the moment she set foot on the track in her first round heat on Friday, the Glaswegian with the long legs and the smooth-striding style looked every inch a serious medal contender. So it proved as she finished, appropriately enough, like a train, to snatch second place behind Aliann Pompey of Guyana.

Having judged her pace to absolute perfection in each of the three preceding rounds, the 23-year-old produced another brilliant demonstration of speed distribution – not quite brilliant enough to win her the gold, though.

It might have been hers had she set out just a shade less conservatively.

Nevertheless, in surging through the field from fifth place at the head of the home straight to the very shoulder of Pompey, the magnificent McConnell claimed a richly deserved silver medal, finishing just 0.05sec behind the winner in 51.68sec.

It was a measure of her run that she left Sandie Richards, the reigning champion from Jamaica, to settle for bronze – with Catherine Murphy of Wales back in sixth in 52.91sec.

The 33-year-old Richards has been running in major championship 400m races since the 1987 world championships in Rome. McConnell has only been running 400m seriously since the start of last season. Until then, she was a high jumper, and a highly promising one too.

Three times she won the Scottish title before switching her attention to the one-lap sprint. She had no regrets about the move last night as she stepped up to major championship medal winning status as a quarter-miler.

When informed that the margin between herself and gold had been 0.05sec, McConnell exclaimed: "Oh gosh!"

"Still," she continued after brief reflection, "I'm really happy with silver.

"It was really hard running the four rounds. Yes, I'm content."

Sadly, there was no contentment for the unfortunate Caines. Chasing a first outdoor major championship medal to set alongside the world indoor gold he collected in Lisbon last year, the 23-year-old Birchfield Harrier set off fast, but then struggled before coming strong again in the final 50m.

At that point he was still sixth, but he clawed his way to the very brink of the medal places.

Michael Blackwood, a member of the Jamaican 4 x 400m relay teams which won bronze medals at the Sydney Olympics and 2001 world championships, took the gold in 45.07sec, 0.02sec ahead of Shane Neimi of Canada.

Caines appeared to cross the line level with Arvard Moncur and stood waiting anxiously on the track for five minutes while the result being displayed on the scoreboard stuck after confirming the first two positions.

When "3. A. Moncur Bahamas 45.13" appeared on the screen, he turned on his heels and departed.

"I didn't want to come away empty-handed," he said. "I gave it my best shot. I couldn't see where the others were. I was running blind to a certain extent. But I will learn from it. I'll come back – hopefully stronger."