Athletics: Dalton retires after grant withdrawn

British athletics, primed for the retirement of Colin Jackson at these World Indoor Championships, yesterday found itself bidding an unexpected farewell to another long-standing performer in Dalton Grant. And it proved to be a painful parting.

The 36-year-old high-jumper, whose senior international career began just like Jackson's at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, announced his decision to quit after failing to reach today's final. He claimed his position had become impossible following the withdrawal of his Lottery grant.

"I blame the lack of funding and the lack of competition I have been able to get because of it,'' Grant said after failing to better 2.20 metres in the qualifying round. "You need the confidence and consistency you get from competition. I've got three kids, no funding and I'm self-coached. It's so frustrating. I've got no choice but to retire.''

Likeable and hugely talented, Grant set nine successive national records between 1988 and '91, becoming the first Briton to be ranked in the world's top 10 since Alan Paterson in 1950. Having narrowly missed a medal at the Seoul Olympics, when his characteristic gamble to enter the competition at an advanced stage almost paid off, he earned his greatest success a decade later, taking the Commonwealth title in Kuala Lumpur and earning a European outdoor silver medal to add to the European indoor goals he had won in 1994.

Grant was not the only British jumper to come to grief yesterday. Chris Tomlinson, who broke Lyn Davies's 28-year-old national long-jump record last season with 8.27 metres, cut a dejected figure after an effort of 7.73m failed to earn him a place in today's final. "My hamstring has been troubling me all week, and the qualifying mark of 8.10 felt a long way away,'' said the 21-year-old Middlesbrough athlete.

London Marathon organisers have accepted the stance of the world governing body, the IAAF, that the presence of male pacemakers for Paula Radcliffe means her race will be classified as a mixed rather than a women's race. The matter will be discussed at the IAAF council meeting at the end of this month.