YOU would have thought one person putting a stick into another person's hand wouldn't be all that difficult.

Unfortunately it appears totally beyond the capability of a British sprint relay squad.

The World Athletics Championships threw up plenty of bad things to show that the glorious sport of athletics has gone backwards on a world scale as well as in Britain.

Edmonton was a disaster. No crowds, no atmosphere, an absence of major stars, a proven drug user winning a gold medal and having to stay up all hours of the night to watch a succession of British failures.

There were a few high points like Jonathan Edwards' triple jump gold and the incredibly brave Dean Macey going through several pain barriers to get a bronze.

Some funny moments, too, like the Jamaican relay runner who remained in his blocks as his team-mate shot past him because he was watching his long jump team-mate on the stadium's big screen, the American 400m relay girl's hilarious juggling and dropping of the baton which threw away a certain gold medal and the commentator's snippet that the opening leg runner in Canada's 100m relay team has a job chasing and catching shop lifters.

But overall it was a series of let downs and the biggest was undoubtedly the sight of a British 100m relay team embarrassing themselves - as they did in the Olympics last year - in the straightforward practice of passing a baton between two people.