Athletics: Merry pulls out as Chambers focuses efforts on world title

Katharine Merry has withdrawn from the Great Britain team for this month's World Championships in Paris.

The Birchfield Harrier was re-admitted to hospital on Tuesday night after a relapse of her throat infection known as Quinsy, and will have her tonsils removed in the next few days.

Merry, who was due to compete in the 4x400 metres relay, had been unable to train due to the condition. The Olympic bronze medallist had only recently returned to action after recovering from an Achilles injury. She hopes to be fit in time to complete a full winter programme of training.

Dwain Chambers has turned his back on the sport's greatest meeting to concentrate on winning the world 100 metres title.

Instead of racing in the Weltklasse Golden League in Zurich on Friday night, the European champion will watch the "three-hour Olympics", as the high-profile Swiss event is dubbed, on television.

While other sprinters fancying their chances of winning the global short sprint title get into their starting blocks, Chambers will be already be in Paris, settling into his accommodation for the World Championships. Chambers is focused on winning his most important race of the year and is far happier fine-tuning and acclimatising in the French capital.

The qualifying rounds for his race do not begin until the second day of the championships, Sunday 24 August, with the blue riband final taking place a day later in the Stade de France. If he does win, Chambers will become only the second British 100m gold medallist since Linford Christiein 1993.

His manager, John Regis, said: "Nothing else - not even the opportunity to race in Zurich - could persuade Dwain to alter his plans for the World Championships.

"Only one thing has mattered to him this summer - and that is winning the 100m title in Paris. When you consider he fell down the stairs and missed four weeks training before the season began, you can see he has come back a long way.

"Dwain has always been confident he could win the world title and has had to take a few defeats on the chin. But in every race he showed he was big enough to do that. Now he knows he is in the driving seat. There is no other thing on his mind.

"He's concentrating on making sure everything is 100 per cent for the most important race of his career. All marketing opportunities and interviews were cancelled to ensure nothing blocks his gold-medal ambitions. He's a total professional."