Athletics: Macey defies injury to take bronze

Dean Macey made up for his Olympic heartache to take decathlon bronze for Britain at the World Championships in Edmonton.

The 23-year-old needed five pain-killing injections just to get him through probably the greatest multi-event competition ever seen.

Macey scored 8603 points to shatter the career best points total he set when controversially missing out in Sydney last September by 36 points.

But it was just not enough as Tomas Dvorak of the Czech Republic claimed a record-equalling third successive title with a championship best of 8902 points to win by 87 from Olympic champion Erki Nool of Estonia with Macey another 212 adrift.

Macey, who had led by one point overnight, was in contention until the eighth event when the growing list of injuries finally took their toll on his giant 6ft 5in frame.

"I am not going to make an excuse of the injuries," insisted Macey, who tore his abductor muscle a few weeks ago, tweaked a hamstring in the opening event and then injured his elbow in the javelin.

"The abductor was the problem. I had a pain-killing injection in my groin on the first day and four more.

"I hate needles, especially down there in that area, which just shows how much this medal means to me that I went through it.

"I feel like I've won my own personal gold medal. Up until the vault I was still in contention and I have proved that I can beat these guys and one day it will be gold. This year I've got something in my pocket and I'm a 8600 point man now.

"Up until the discus I was on track for 8800 points and breaking Daley Thompson's record.

"But I'd mentally and physically drained myself out. I think that's why my vault and my javelin suffered. I had a mental block in the vault and I threw the javelin like I had two left arms.

"I'd gone and knackered my elbow when I went for the big one at the start because of the abductor problem which restricted my movement. But sometimes you have got to gamble a million to win two million. It just didn't work this time."

Dvorak regained the mantle as the world's greatest all-round athlete by emulating American Dan O'Brien's three successive world titles.

"I can say that I am back and I am here to stay," warned the Czech. "I wanted to score 9000 points, but this was not the time for a world record. It's been a hard four years winning these titles but a championship record makes me feel good."