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Great Britain sprint teams crash out in Barcelona

Great Britain has a history of errors in sprint relays © Getty Images

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Britain suffered a double blow at the European Athletics Championships after both the men's and women's sprint relay teams failed to qualify for their respective finals.

A calamitous change between Mark Lewis-Francis and Marlon Devonish saw the men's 4x100m team finish fifth in their heat, in 39.49, and miss out on the showpiece event.

GB's women suffered a similar fate as two poor baton exchanges in the 4x100m meant the quartet of Joice Maduaka, Montell Douglas, Hayley Jones and Laura Turner could only muster sixth place.

Leon Baptiste got Britain off to a flying start in the men's heat and there were no problems in his handover to Craig Pickering. Pickering, who accepted the blame for Great Britain's failure to get the baton round in qualifying during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, ran a fine leg to put the team in a great position to qualify before disaster struck.

Germany were the fastest qualifiers in 38.75 while France, who were third quickest, will welcome back 100m and 200m champion Christophe Lemaitre after he was rested on the back of his individual exertions.

Lewis-Francis, who took an age to take hold of the baton cleanly from Devonish, shouldered the responsibility for the blunder.

"This is my fault, I've let the guys down," he told the BBC. "Wow, it's such a big blow. I apologise sincerely to all the guys, I just cannot believe that happened."

"I just didn't react. We had a good spirit in the camp and I've got to take this on my shoulders, I just did not get out at all. I really feel it for the guys, they have been waiting for two weeks for this run."

Devonish, although hugely disappointed, refused to apportion his team-mate with all the blame.

"I thought there was no-one around me when I came round the bend. Let's do a proper analysis later, but there's no hiding from it that that was a bad changeover," he said.

"We expect to medal at the Euros, of course we do because we pick up medals at the Worlds a fair bit. I'm bitterly disappointed, but let's not put it all on Mark's head. We're here as a team."

There was better news for Britain in the men's 4x400m, with Conrad Williams, Graham Hedman, Richard Buck and Rob Tobin booking a place in the final by winning their semi-final. The team is likely to be strengthened for Friday's final by the addition of individual silver and bronze medallists Michael Bingham and Martyn Rooney.

Jessica Ennis continues to head the women's heptathlon but the Sheffield-born star saw her overnight lead of 110 points over Nataliya Dobrynska trimmed to 68 following the long jump.

Ennis, 24, jumped 6.43m - only 8cm short of her personal best in the event to boost her points tally to 5065, while Olympic champion Dobrynska managed 6.56m in the second round to stay in pursuit of gold.

There are two events left in the competition - the javelin and the 800m. The battle for gold could go to the wire as Ennis holds the edge in the 800m but her closest rival has a better record in the javelin.

Merlene Ottey became the oldest athlete to ever compete at a European Championships with a run in the 4x100m relay. The veteran sprinter, who has been competing for adopted country Slovenia since 2002, anchored their sprint team at the age of 50 and, although the team did not qualify, it is an astonishing achievement.

In the women's marathon, Britain's Michelle Ross Cope finished 14th in two hours 38:45 minutes. Zivile Balciunaite, who finished fourth in the 2006 European Championships, won in a season's best 2:31.14 to become the first Lithuanian woman to ever claim gold in a marathon.

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