THERE was disappointment for our two track athletes gunning for a place in Great Britain’s World Championships squad at the Crystal Palace Grand Prix.

Sprint hurdler Gianni Frankis, inset, failed in his attempt to run the qualifying time needed for the World Championships, in Daegu, South Korea, while James Shane was forced to pull out of the historic Emsley Carr Mile after feeling an injury during his warm-up.

Both men will now be waiting anxiously to hear whether they will make the GB team for Daegu.

The squad is due to be announced in the coming days.

Shane, 21, from Basildon, has the best chance of travelling to his first senior championships.

The Newham & Essex Beagle won the national championships over 1,500m last weekend and is the fastest man in the country over that distance.

His personal best, set last weekend at the UK Championships and World Trials in Birmingham, is 3m 36.22s, is only enough for a B-standard qualifying time.

However, the Great Britain team selectors can take one athlete with the B-standard.

British middle-distance legend Steve Cram certainly feels Shane deserves to go to Daegu, saying: “Nobody wants Shane or others to go to Daegu as passengers with no hope of making finals.

“Head coach Charles Van Commenee rightly wants a team that is genuinely competitive. We want to win medals – but you have to be thinking about the future.”

Shane felt a slight tweak in his Achilles ahead of what would have been his first ever competitive race over the mile distance on Saturday and pulled out as a precaution.

Frankis was also dealt a cruel blow by the weather conditions at Crystal Palace. A headwind inside the stadium meant achieving the qualifying time of 13.52s, which would have been a lifetime best, was always going to be a tough ask.

In a high-quality heat, Frankis finished sixth in 13.81s.

Elsewhere, there was a fine win in the under-20 women’s 3,000m by Basildon AC’s Gemma Kersey.

Kersey, 18, took victory in a time of 9m 44.31s.

In the under-20 men’s 3,000m race, Dale Clutterbuck, 19, also of Basildon AC, finished 10th in a personal best time of 8m 23.79s.

Paralympic hopeful Robin Womach finished third in the shot-putt with a throw of 10.65m.