Out-of-sorts Edwards misses trials

Jonathan Edwards, an unhappy winner at last Wednesday's Rome grand prix, has pulled out of this weekend's British Olympic trials in Birmingham.

The world triple jump champion, who has failed to recapture the sort of form which took him over 18 metres on several occasions last season, has cited knee and heel problems. Doctors are reported to have told him to rest for at least 10 days.

But while a physical reason for withdrawal may be more acceptable to the British Athletic Federation, it seemed clear from Edwards' statements last Wednesday night - where he avoided his first defeat since September 1994 with a last effort of 17.55m - that he was struggling to get into the right frame of mind for his Olympic challenge next month.

"I am not enjoying the event like last year," he said. "It's no longer fun. There is nothing wrong with me physically. I'm in the same shape I was in 12 months ago so my problem has to be mental."

Edwards has made no secret of the fact that he has found it hard coming to terms with being Olympic favourite after his startling leap forward last year.

He has won all three of his opening competitions this season - grand prix meetings in Rome and Atlanta, and the European Cup in Madrid, where he set a world 1996 best of 17.79m.

But even that last achievement failed to satisfy or settle him. "I had in my mind something longer than that," he said.

Edwards seemed in ideal physical shape before the season, having trained to his satisfaction in Florida and reduced his 100m personal best to 10.48sec. The main problem he has now seems to be one of mental tuning, and perhaps a period of reflection will help.

Meanwhile another of Britain's potential Olympic challengers, Yvonne Murray, has ruled herself out of contention in Atlanta. The 31-year-old Scottish Commonwealth 10,000m champion feels she has lost too much training time through a problem with her sciatic nerve. She plans to return to action later this season and make a switch to road racing with the long term aim of running the Olympic marathon in 2000.