ROAD TO RIO: Stockton sprint star unhappy with his GB team-mates

The British quartet could only finish ninth in last weekend’s heats in the Caribbean, meaning they missed out on the A final which offered the opportunity to cement a place in Rio next summer.

Kilty, the World Indoor champion who hails from Stockton, teamed up with James Ellington, Danny Talbot and Andy Robertson to win the B final, but was frustrated at the failure to make the A final, which saw the United States claim gold ahead of Jamaica and Japan.

A number of senior performers including Commonwealth 100m silver medallist Adam Gemili, European 4x100m champion James Dasaolu, sub-ten second runner Chijindu Ujah and the experienced Harry Aikines-Aryeetey opted not to run in the World Relays, with their excuses ranging from minor injuries to university exams.

Had a couple of them been involved, Britain would almost certainly have made the final, and while there will be other opportunities to claim a relay place in Rio, Kilty regards the weekend as a huge missed opportunity.

“I personally feel let down by the guys that haven’t come out,” said the Teessider. “We’ve got a massive chance of a medal in Rio next year and it’s a disappointment that people aren’t making themselves available to come out here and perform.

“We could have challenged for the gold. We’ve got a lot of strong guys sitting there at home, which is a terrible shame.

“We all have our individual aspirations, but the relay’s a massive thing and we could have qualified for Rio automatically here.

“So why are the guys sat at home? We’re all going to have to come together and bring out the best team possible to get the job done because that simply wasn’t good enough.”

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PAUL DRINKHALL admitted his return of serve was his key weakness as he crashed out of the World Table Tennis Championships in China.

Drinkhall, who is from Loftus, was beaten by world number 18 Chun Ting Wong of Hong Kong in the last 64, in a match that was much closer than the 4-1 scoreline suggests (12-10, 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, 11-6).

The North-Easterner earlier sailed through his first-round match, dropping only seven points in beating world No 367 Elia Schmid of Switzerland 4-0 (11-1, 11-4, 11-1, 11-1).

“I’m a bit disappointed, to be honest,” said Drinkhall. “I played well in my first match. It was against a weaker opponent but I did play well. In the second match, I think I played okay. I didn’t do too much wrong but it wasn’t good enough.

“The first set was important. I was leading and he came back and won it and that possibly dampened my confidence a little bit because I was on top throughout that game. I received quite badly, which also affected my confidence, but it was still a really close game – that’s the annoying thing. If I’d received a bit better it would have made a difference.”

Drinkhall teamed up with Liam Pitchford for the doubles, but the duo were beaten 4-2 (7-11, 6-11, 11-4, 11-7, 8-11, 8-11) in the round of 64 by Youngsik Jung & Minseok Kim of South Korea.

“I think we played a good game really but the main problem was a bit of a slow start and going 2-0 down,” added Drinkhall. “After that it was a 50-50 game.”

Pitchford reached the last 32 of the singles – the first English player to do so since Matthew Syed and Carl Prean in 1999 – before exiting to world No 17 Saehyuk Joo of Korea.

“I’ve no doubt Paul is disappointed because he took the guy very close (he lost 4-3 at the German Open in March) and so his expectations were quite high,” said performance coach Alan Cooke.

“But Wong has certainly improved and was a top-16 seed here. It’s such a fine line but it was a very positive competition and hopefully it’s all good experience for the future.”

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KAT DRISCOLL and Savannah Marshall are expected to be amongst Great Britain’s leading medal hopes for the inaugural European Games after the squad for the multi-sport event in Baku was confirmed.

A total of 153 British athletes will compete across 13 sports and 19 disciplines at the European Games, which are the continent’s first ever major multi-sport event.

The Games, which will be televised live on BT Sport, run from June 12-28, and form part of the Olympic qualification process in archery, beach volleyball, boxing, judo, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon and wrestling.

The athletes from the North-East and North Yorkshire selected to compete in Team GB are: Hannah Featherstone (Billingham, swimming), Savannah Marshall (Hartlepool, boxing), Kat Driscoll (West Rainton, trampolining), Jeremy Bird (Hartlepool, shooting), Paul Drinkhall (Loftus, table tennis), Philip Graves (York, triathlon).

Driscoll, a world champion in the synchro discipline, and Marshall, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist last summer, should have especially strong chances of coming away with a medal.

“I’m really pleased to be representing Team GB again,” said Driscoll. “The European Games will be a great platform into the competition season in such an important year. It’s always an honour and privilege to compete for Team GB and I can’t wait to get out there.”

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MIDDLESBROUGH’S Aimee Willmott and Hartlepool’s Jemma Lowe have both been named in the British squad for the World Swimming Championships.

Willmott, who finished second to Hannah Miley in the 400m Individual Medley final at the recent British Championships, is likely to compete in the 400IM and the 200IM at the Worlds, which take place in Kazan, Russia, between August 2-9, while Lowe will compete in the butterfly events.

“The challenge for everyone is to move our performances on between now and the summer,” said British Swimming head coach Bill Furniss. “Athletes have done a good job to make the team but our primary focus is to improve performances in the summer, and we will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of this.”