I just put it down to having a bad day."Someone pointed out that he had improved with each of his jumps That raised a smile. "It wasn't difficult was it? Not when you start at 16.89."Tony Jarrett, running the 110m hurdles following Colin Jackson's withdrawal, pushed the German favourite, Falk Balzer, close before taking second place in a time of 13.31sec. Jarrett said afterwards that he would be dedicating all his races this season to Baillie, and he expected that Jackson - who was Baillie's flatmate and training partner - would do the same.The 400m relay team, taken from third to first place thanks to Solomon Wariso's explosive third leg, concluded the overall event with their customary victory. A year ago, Richardson had rounded off the last leg in St Petersburg by using the baton as an imaginary cigar; this time the mood - for many reasons - was anything but celebratory, although the Windsor athlete did kiss the British logo on his vest.There was satisfaction, too, for Keri Maddox, the 26-year-old former European junior high hurdles champion. She finished strongly in the 100m hurdles, knocking 0.14sec off her personal best with a time of 12.97sec, just 0.01sec slower than the French winner, Patricia Gerard.

Maddox has spent a number of years concentrating on the 400m hurdles, but now she appears to have the best of both worlds. The strength she has gained in endurance training paid off for her yesterday.But Radcliffe's was the outstanding British performance of the day. She broke the rest of the field with a mid-race surge and ran on strongly for a winning time of 14min 48.79sec, the fasted in the world this year. That lifted the women into sixth place and confirmed the relegation of Poland and the Czech Republic - although, had Britain failed to escape, they would have avoided the drop because next year's competition will be hosted by Gateshead. The women's captain, who like the rest of the team sported a black ribbon in Baillie's memory, also carried a red ribbon on her shirt - underlining her willingness to be blood-tested at any time.The gesture was thought of by the French 5,000m runner Blandine Bitzner, who wrote in the French press this week of the need to introduce more stringent measures to combat doping abuse in distance running. Bitzner, also wearing a red ribbon, accompanied Radcliffe on a lap of honour.Afterwards Radcliffe referred to what she described as "a number of dodgy performances" which had taken place in women's distance running in the course of the last year. Whether that message will be heeded by the authorities remains to be seen..

IRELAND'S INTERNATIONAL squad flew home yesterday full of optimism after an encouraging end to their abbreviated Australian tour. Although the Irish won just one of their four matches, their New Zealand-born coach, Warren Gatland, said the team was satisfied "This tour wasn't just about results for us. We're trying to develop a style of play and I think we're starting to get there," Gatland said before the team's return to Dublin. "We may not have won the games but we definitely showed that we've got something there to work on." The Irish won plenty of admirers in Australia after pushing the Wallabies all the way in the second Test in a week, losing by a narrow 32-26 after a record 46-10 defeat in their first meeting. They led the Australians 14-9 early in the second half of Saturday's match before allowing the home side to score 23 unanswered points.But, just when it looked as though the Australians were about to run away with the match completely, the Irish hit back with two late tries to post their biggest total in a test against Australia and outscore the home side three tries to two."We know we let them off the hook, but the good thing was that we came back at them at the end when we could have folded," Gatland said. "It's hard to remember the last time when Ireland did that against one of the big teams from the southern hemisphere."Gatland said the main objective of Ireland's tour was to prepare for this year's World Cup, where they are drawn in the same pool as Australia.Ireland opened their tour with a comprehensive win over New South Wales Country, but lost their following matches against the full NSW side and the Wallabies.The most pleasing aspect of the tour, however, was the emergence of a host of promising backs, traditionally Ireland's weak spot.