Dai Greene pulls out shattered from his Gold medal run. 2 September 2011

In his fourth World Championships, Martyn Rooney was looking to bring home a medal in the 4x400m relay final, but with a young team looking to make their mark for the future, the quartet came home in seventh place in Daegu on Friday night.

The team of Richard Strachan (Linford Christie), Nigel Levine (Simon Duberley), Chris Clarke (Nick Dakin) and Martyn Rooney (Nick Dakin) clocked 3:01.16, with the USA winning with 2:59.31.

Rooney made his relay team debut at the World Championships in 2005, he made sure the squad received words of wisdom as the race ended:

“It’s my fourth World Championships and I wanted to make sure everyone knew that they had done a great job,” he explained.

“We ran an incredible time from lane one, probably similar time to what we ran in 2009 where we won a silver medal, so it’s very exciting going into London 2012.”

New World Champion Dai Greene put his celebrations on hold to be part of the 4x400m relay final, but was disappointed that his body just couldn’t recover in time. He explained:

“When I was warming up my body was shattered, so I decided to pull myself out of the team. I felt they had a chance of a medal and I didn’t want to mess it up with my tired legs from last night. I knew the other guy could do just as good a job given how tired my body was feeling. It was a really tough call to make, but I know it was the right one.”

“I’m really looking forward to getting home now and seeing my family, girlfriend Sian and friends that have supported me throughout my career. It is still sinking in though!”