DENISE LEWIS will be missing from the Great Britain team at a global championships for the first time in 12 years in August after conceding that she will not be fit to secure a place at the World Championships in Helsinki. The former Olympic, European and Commonwealth heptathlon champion, more recently lauded for her performances on television in Strictly Come Dancing, said yesterday that illness had ruined her chances.
Lewis had planned to compete in an overseas heptathlon this weekend in an attempt to secure the Helsinki qualifying mark. However, a tonsil infection cost her crucial training and, with no further realistic opportunity to register a score before the team is selected, she is concentrating on supporting the London bid to host the 2012 Olympics. She leaves next week for the vote in Singapore on July 6.
“Having fallen ill a couple of weeks ago, I was out of action for some time,” Lewis said yesterday. “I lost 4kg in a matter of days and was very weak. I am not in shape to compete and therefore I will have missed the date to qualify.” Asked whether she had been on course for a qualifying score, Lewis indicated that she had been hopeful.
“Training was going well, but you never know how you will perform until you compete,” Lewis said. Now 32, she made her breakthrough when winning the Commonwealth Games title in 1994 and it has been her intention to end her career in that competition in Melbourne next March, especially after the disappointment of failing to finish at the Olympics in Athens last summer.
“My career started at the Commonwealths and I had thought I would like to finish there,” Lewis said. “I will be back in training once I am well enough and will wait to see.” Even for that, though, she faces a race against time, as the England team is due to be finalised on September 5. Should she fail to meet that deadline, we may have seen the last of the 2000 Olympic champion already.
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Lewis has attended every Olympics and World Championships since 1995, although she withdrew from the 2001 World Championships the day before her event with a variety of ailments. A double world silver medal-winner, in 1997 and 1999, and Olympic bronze medal-winner in 1996, she has not won a medal since her Olympic gold five years ago.