Idowu 'hurt' by missed gold chance

7:19pm Thursday 21st August 2008

Britain's Phillips Idowu admitted he was "upset and hurt" after seeing Olympic gold snatched from his grasp by an agonising five centimetres in the triple jump final in Beijing.

Idowu produced his best jump of the year to lead with 17.62 metres after the third round, only to see Portugal's Nelson Evora then leap 17.67m in round four.

"It's not what I wanted but I'll take it," said Idowu. "It was a tough competition, really close in the end. It hurts, I'm upset, I clearly need to achieve a lot more. I just fell short."

He added: "It's been a long road, it's my first major outdoor medal. I shouldn't be complaining, a lot of people would dream of being in the Olympic Games, let along picking up a medal, but I don't want to be content with a silver medal.

"I've just got to keep improving. It would have taken an outdoor PB (to win the gold) but I've been in such great form this year I believed I could do it."

Matching his personal best of 17.68m would have given Idowu gold, but the 29-year-old Londoner was unable to improve in the final two rounds.

Leevan Sands of the Bahamas claimed bronze with 17.59m while Britain's Larry Achike was seventh.