WORLD Indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty refused to be downcast despite being disqualified for a false start at the season-opening Sainsbury's Glasgow International Match.

Kilty came into Saturday’s race as favourite for the gold medal – he was the standout performer in the field after taking the world title at last year's indoor championships.

However, his false start left the field clear for France's Emmanuel Biron to take victory in 6.69 seconds, Germany's Christian Blum taking silver and Scotland's Cameron Tindle bronze.

It was a frustrating day for Kilty, who could have helped Great Britain to overall victory at the event with a win – his team eventually finishing second to Germany by a single point.

“I feel like I would’ve won that race by more than two metres. It would have been an easy victory, but I’ve never known the starters to hold us for so long,” said Kilty.

“It was far too long. I was on set, and they just held us there for such a long time.

“Everything has gone really well with my winter training. I wish I could have come out and got the victory, but I didn’t today and that’s all there is to it really.

“A lot of people have had twitches like that over the last year or so and got away with them, so it’s just hard luck really.

“I’m a lot faster than the rest of the people in that field, and it would have been a comfortable victory even if I had a bad race.

“It’s just one of those things sometimes. If you twitch sometimes they let you go, and others you’re disqualified. It’s a massive shame.”

Middlesbrough long jumper Chris Tomlinson was also in action in Glasgow and didn't fare any better – a torn hamstring after his first leap bringing an abrupt end to his indoor season.

The jump of 7.61m turned out to long enough to secure a silver medal for the 33-year-old, with Germany's Julian Howard the only athlete able to better it with 7.81m.

However, a second-place finish was scant consolation for Tomlinson who had been hoping to make a real impact at this year's European Indoor Championships in March.

“I’m very disappointed because training was going well, I was doing PBs in training and lifting good weights. I came out here and just the first jump on take-off my hamstring tore. It’s a shame but it’s the way it goes and you’ve got to move on,” he said.

“I’ve got to take a step back and assess exactly where I am. Obviously the indoor season is going to be pretty difficult now.

“It’s such a short compact indoor season and a hamstring injury, or any injury on take-off, is quite difficult so I’m just going to take a step back and build on it from here.

“It’s all about doing well at bigger competitions, there’s no doubt about that. But I’ll have to make those decisions as and when.

“It’s brilliant competing here. We always get good support within Britain which is great. I love competing for Great Britain and I love competing in front of a home crowd because you always get great support.

“Of course getting an injury like this knocks you and initially you have a bad reaction. I personally at the moment don’t feel very aggressive but I’ve just got to deal with it. You’ve got to man up and get on with it.”

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