Cragg looking for new challenges after bowing out of 5,000m

Alistair Cragg has revealed that this morning's 5,000m heat is probably his last track race of his career.

The Clonliffe Harriers runner also said he was extremely disappointed for his team who had worked hard to get him to the Olympics after he missed out on a place in the final of the 5,000 metres this morning.

The South-African born runner maintains that he didn't come just to race, but to qualify and highlighted Australian Craig Mottram's burst in the middle of the race as the point that did for him.

Cragg said: "I decided I wanted to get here and get to the final, not just to perform, I have got to the final a few times in majors and haven't done anything. I decided I need to take this by the horns and do something about it and I changed coaches.

"It was hard just getting into a routine, I got a bout of sickness and it was just a string of bad things for about five or six weeks, so I decided no more races, I really wanted to work hard for this one, it's probably my last track Olympics."

Cragg now feels that he wants to concentrate on the marathon.

He said: "That's really where my heart has been for over a year.

"I really wanted to come here for the marathon and in December I had done perfect training, but in Fukuyoka, bang and lesson learned which meant I couldn't come here for the marathon."

"My test for here was not just to qualify, but to perform in the final, I didn't want to just make the final, I wanted to perform there and if you keep doing the same thing, it gets pretty boring. I wanted new challenges."