Picture the scene. Through the huge glass windows of the Grand Hotel, the sun is glinting on the azure blue of the Mediterranean. The track-and-field stars who shone brightest at the Athens Olym-pics are gathering in Monte Carlo for the World Athletics Finals and the annual end-of-season gala awards ceremony hosted by the International Association of Athletics Federations. At a press conference in a meeting room of the hotel, the leading ladies of the sport are being asked who they would vote for as IAAF Female World Athlete of the Year.

BRITISH ATHLETICS was yesterday coming to terms with a bizarre windfall from its Olympic successes in Athens as UK Sport announced that the number of elite performers receiving Lottery funding for the next four years would be cut by more than half.

There were two clear challenges for Kelly Holmes on Saturday as she returned to a British track for the first time since winning double Olympic gold.

Kelly Holmes returns to a British track today for the first time since her Olympic triumphs - although to call it her first British appearance would hardly be appropriate. Since winning 800 and 1500 metres gold in Athens five months ago, the 34-year-old former Army sergeant has collected a succession of titles in the public arena.

Holmes and dry for the golden girl as Pinsent ponders future

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Kelly Holmes yesterday cast doubt on whether she would run at next year's World Championships, adding that she doubted whether she would ever have the same hunger for competition following her Olympic triumphs.

The conqueror of Athens on top of the world

Charlton Athletic 0 - Southampton 0

Something unusual happened in the Olympic Stadium here yesterday - Kelly Holmes lost a race and broke into a radiant smile. But then you can do that kind of thing when you are a double Olympic champion.

The Olympic champion Kelly Holmes was greeted by cheering crowds as she paraded through her home town on an open-top bus yesterday. The 800m and 1500m gold medallist brought the centre of Tonbridge in Kent to a standstill as about 40,000 well-wishers lined the streets, waving Union flags.