Macey loses bronze after coach backs rival's foul throw

Greg Richards did not know whether to commiserate with Dean Macey or celebrate with Erki Nool after the finish of the decathlon yesterday.

In one corner was Macey, from Canvey Island, slumped over his bag trying to come to terms with missing an Olympic bronze medal by only 28 points - the equivalent of four seconds, a blink of an eye after 10 events of competition spread over two days. In the other was Nool wildly celebrating after becoming Estonia's first-ever Olympic champion.

Richards, a former British international decathlete who coaches both athletes, hovered on the edge of the area where the press and athletes meet. "I don't really know what to do," he admitted.

He was obviously delighted at helping Nool to the Olympic title but was "gutted" at seeing Macey, the 22-year-old he guided from promising schoolboy to phenomenal world-class talent, miss out on a medal.

"I feel strange," he admitted. "It obviously feels wonderful to coach an Olympic champion - the best night of my career - but I'm really upset for Dean."

What made it worse was that Richards knew he was largely responsible for Macey not winning a medal. He had led the protests after Nool was deemed to have registered no mark in the discus earlier in the day, when it appeared he had stepped over the edge of the throwing circle by a few inches.

Richards encouraged the Estonian team to protest. Also complaining was Daley Thompson, Britain's 1980 and 1984 Olympic champion who helps Richards coach Nool. The decision to allow the throw to stand and to dismiss Britain's complaint was the difference between Nool winning gold and finishing 20th.

"He's my man; I thought it was a fair throw," said Richards. "I would have done the same if it had happened to Dean. You have to do what you think is fair."

Max Jones, the performance director of UK Athletics who helped pay Richards's expenses here, thought Nool should have lost. "He is a very lucky athlete.The video replays show he was out of the circle, and not by a small margin; it was two or three inches over. It was clearly a foul. I'm gutted for Dean and I think he should have got a medal."

Adding to Macey's frustration was that his personal best of 8,567 points was not enough in a competition that was the closest in Olympic history, with only 74 points covering first to fourth places. "I didn't think I would stand here after a personal best and fourth place in my first Olympic Games and feel sick as a dog, but I do," said the Briton, the world championship runner-up in Seville last year.

Overnight he had been only eight points behind the leader Chris Huffins, of the United States, but he saw his chances of a gold medal start to slip when he ran only 14.53sec in the 110m hurdles, the first event of the day.

But, cheered on from the stands by Britain's newly crowned heptathlon champion Denise Lewis, he refused to throw in the towel and ran a personal-best 4min 23.45sec in the last event, the 1500m. "I had a bad hurdles and a bad discus but I busted every bone in my body to get round," he said.

It may not cheer Macey up at the moment but Richards believes he has not only coached the 2000 Olympic champion but also the one of 2004. "Dean is the future of the event," he said. "All I have to do is keep him healthy."