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Ellington counts cost of sponsorship bid hoax

James Ellington's search for sponsorship continues © Getty Images

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• News: British sprint hope turns to eBay for sponsor
  

British sprinter James Ellington fears his attempts to raise sponsorship funds ahead of London 2012 have been derailed by a fake bid.

Ellington, a 200m specialist, grabbed headlines with his innovative idea to raise money to cover his training expenses by auctioning the opportunity to sponsor him between now and the Olympic Games on the website eBay.

The south Londoner ended up with a winning bid of £32,500 - £2,500 more than his reserve - but has so far been unable to track down the winning bidder, and now fears it may have been a fraud.

Ellington, who currently receives £11,000 in lottery funding each year for his role in Great Britain's relay squad, was planning on using the money to pay for training, equipment and living expenses - as well as enabling him to fund a valuable warm-weather training camp in the United States.

"There seem to be a few sad people out there," Ellington told the Daily Telegraph. "For me personally, I wouldn't be messing about with someone's career but there are certain people out there who like to mess things up.

"I've spoken to the guys at eBay and they say they are still trying to get in touch with the highest bidder, but they are finding it difficult and they are not sure whether the top bids may be people just messing around.

"They're just checking out whether the bids are genuine. They haven't got to the bottom of it yet so I'm still waiting to find out what's going on, which is a bit frustrating.

"It obviously concerns me because it was for a good cause and it's a serious thing that I'm doing. If people have been bidding just to mess about, then it's annoying but hopefully there are some genuine bids there."

Ellington, who has achieved the 200m Olympic qualifying 'A' standard already but needs to finish in the top two at the Olympic trials in June to realise his 2012 dream, will continue his training despite the disappointment - hoping another opportunity might open up for him.

"Throughout my life I've had so many let-downs that I never count my chickens before they hatch," he said. "I was just optimistic and thought to myself, 'If I get the money then I get the money. If I don't, I won't even focus on it.'

"I'm just trying to get on with things and focus on my training. If you get too engrossed in everything it can just eat you up, so I'm just trying to keep my head down, keep training and focus on my goal. Hopefully, something will come through and I'll get some sponsorship.

"If it doesn't come through, then I would have to look at other ways to try to raise the money. A lot of private people have contacted us, so if eBay doesn't work, we may be able to sort something out."

An eBay spokesman said: "It's unfortunate that this top bidder doesn't appear to be bona fide. We are a trading platform and ultimately we need people to play by the rules.

"It's pretty rare and I'm confident that James will still get some sponsorship out of this. He's obviously had tremendous publicity from just being on eBay, so I think the outcome for him will be a good one."

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