Idowu out of Olympics after qualifying flop

British triple jumper Phillips Idowu failed to qualify for the men's Olympic final here on Tuesday, making an abject exit after a controversial build-up to the Games. His best mark of 16.53 metres saw him finish two places outside the qualifiers, some nine centimetres short of the 12th and final finalist Dzmitry Platnitski of Belarus. The 33-year-old Beijing silver medalist had been one of Britain's big hopes for the Games. However, tension arose when Idowu opted not to travel to the team's pre-Games training camp in Portugal and undergo treatment on a trapped nerve in his back, preferring to seek his own remedy. His behaviour was labelled 'bizarre' by Charles van Commenee, the disciplinarian head coach of British athletics.